Person of interest questioned in mass shooting that killed three in Portage Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police were questioning of interest Monday afternoon in a mass shooting at that left three people dead and a third critically wounded on the Northwest Side over the weekend.
The shooting happened around 2:26 a.m. Sunday at the Vera Lounge, at 3235 N. Central Ave. off School Street in Portage Park.
Family and friends of 25-year-old Maria Vera gathered for her birthday celebration inside the lounge. Police said an argument inside the bar turned into a fight that spilled outside in the street – and that was when a man fired shots and fled in a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle.
Ricky Vera, 50, whose brother owns the bar, was shot in the head and chest and was pronounced dead on the scene.
His daughter, Mariah Vera, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the head, and was listed in critical condition.
Two of Maria's friends – Mario Pozuelos, 26, of Franklin Park, and Mercedes Tavares, 24, of Chicago Heights – were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to the body. Both were pronounced dead.
It's not clear what started the fight that led to the shooting.