'Heartbreaking': Family, Friends On Englewood Mass Shooting With 4 Dead, 4 Injured

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Investigators are trying to figure out what happened inside an Englewood home that led to gunfire just before 6 a.m. Tuesday.

CBS 2's Tara Molina tracked developments Tuesday.

At least one of the victims was a mother. Four people are dead and four others left injured.

According to family and friends who showed up at the scene today, a 32-year-old mother is among the four shot and killed this morning. Four others injured.

Police said this wasn't the first time they've been called to the house.

The mother of one of the four killed in the fatal mass shooting early Tuesday was just one of the family members who showed up at the scene.

"That's my baby sister. I love her to death," said a man who identified as the brother of one of the three women killed here, Denice Mathis.

The man shared a photo with CBS 2. He didn't want to show his face or share his name, but called his sister a wonderful mother of five who she had just taken her kids to the water park the day before she was killed here.

"She was a good mama. Loving mama. Five kids," he said.

"It's really heartbreaking," added a woman named Michelle.

Michelle lives across right across the street from where the shooting happened. She says Denice was a friend and she's still struggling to process what happened here.

"My prayers go out to Denice and her family, my friends," she said.

Here's what's known so far -- according to Chicago Police three of the victims, pronounced dead at the scene, were women along with one man.

Of the four surviving victims, there are three men and a woman.

But police still haven't been able to interview them because they're in the hospital.

Neighbors said it is the party house on the block.

Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown said they believe there was a party going on when the shooting happened.

"There's been several calls there for disturbances," he said.

No guns were found in the house, but police did find shell casings and a high-capacity magazine for a gun inside the house.

"There are way too many guns in the wrong hands in this city and across this country," Brown said.

Focusing on the illegal gun issue in Chicago is something Mayor Lori Lightfoot addressed, in connection to the incident as well.

"It tells us we still have much work to do in our mission to end gun violence here in Chicago," Lightfoot said.

This incident came days after another mass shooting in Chatham Saturday, where a mother was killed and nine others wounded.

"This is crazy. Why do people have to keep on shooting and killing people? For what?" Michelle said.

Until police know more about what happened, extra patrols will be in the area.

But there have been no arrests as they continue to investigate the mass shooting.

Meanwhile, Englewood community leader and activist Asiaha Butler is focused on another issue - summer safety. A preventive community policing plan we've heard so much about from the mayor and CPD involves plans to flood the city's most violent neighborhoods with resources and help, but Butler said Englewood has not seen anything yet.

"Being here today, we haven't seen or witnessed it yet," she said. "So what is being deployed or what is happening differently?"

She's calling for something different - for foot patrols and real community engagement. The Englewood (7th) District is one of the police districts that sees the most shootings in the city, and now this mass shooting has happened.

"We need the police, the community, everybody working together to really identify here trouble buildings and trouble gatherings," Butler said.

In:
• Englewood