7 Killed In 3 South Shore Shootings Less Than 12 Hours Apart
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Seven people were killed in three separate shootings less than 12 hours apart on Thursday in the South Shore neighborhood.
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson indicated two of the shootings fall into the category of gang-related gun violence and may be related. He said detectives are following leads.
"They were not random murders. So, for the remainder of the community -- they're relativity safe. But, we're here to stabilize things over here and keep the community safe, and that's what we intend to do," Johnson said during a news conference Friday afternoon.
The latest shooting happened around 11 p.m., at 71st and South Shore Drive, just outside the South Shore Cultural Center. Police said a man and a woman were passengers in a grey van headed south on South Shore Drive when a black Jeep pulled up alongside them, and someone inside opened fire, causing the van to crash into a pole.
Police said the man was in the back seat of the van, and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to his side. The woman was in the front passenger seat, and suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
About seven hours earlier, four people were gunned down at Nadia Fish & Chicken, on the 2700 block of East 75th Street. Police said a man walked up to the restaurant around 4 p.m., and opened fire.
Once police arrived, a 21-year-old man and a 28-year-old man were found dead inside. Two other men were found dead in separate parking lots nearby, after running from the scene.
All four victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Three of the victims were identified by the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office: Dillion Jackson, 20; Raheam Jackson, 19; and Emmanuel C. Stokes, 28. The fourth victim's name has not yet been released.
Police said the attack was believed to be a gang-related act of retaliation for an earlier fatal shooting.
The Jackson brothers were visiting their mother at work at the time.
"They killed my sons in front of me," she said Thursday afternoon.
Shortly after noon, a pregnant woman was found dead in an apartment near 75th and Luella. Authorities said 26-year-old Patrice Calvin – four months pregnant – had been shot in the head, and a source told CBS 2 the shooting might have been domestic-related. Johnson, the police superintendent, says the death is not related to the other two shootings from Thursday.
City officials decried the latest wave of violence.
Ald. Leslie Hairston of the 5th Ward says there are no surprising remedies to curb the shootings.
"Obviously, we have jobs and investment. It's not just one or the other, and you've got to have the whole shebang. The same thing they do on the North Side," Hairston tells CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the incidents from Thursday demonstrate "a level of evil and depravity."
