After 3 Teens Are Shot In Chatham Dance Studio, Owners Says He Feels Like He Failed
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After a 14-year-old girl and two young men were shot and wounded at a Chatham neighborhood dance studio over the weekend, the owner of the studio said he felt like he had failed.
Around 9 p.m. Sunday, the victims were among a group in the Astronaut Flee Dance Studio, 211 E. 79th St., when at least one person fired shots from outside and struck them all, police said.
A 14-year-old girl was taken to the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital in fair condition with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.
An 18-year-old man was shot in the torso and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, while a 19-year-old man was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center with multiple gunshot wounds to the abdomen. They were both in serious condition.
"So you can come, just like shoot a gun actually inside, you know what I'm saying? Like, you really lost it," owner Doncell Richard told CBS 2's Charlie De Mar. "You don't have no respect for nobody right there."
Richard went back to the scene Monday night. The dance studio remained closed.
"I'm beating myself up like I could have done so much different, but I really couldn't," he said.
A GoFundMe has been set up in search of help repairing the studio. The fundraiser was set up by Barbie Jones, who said a routine dance battle was under way at the time of the shooting.
Jones described the dance battle as a "fundraiser to help pay for kids monthly dues and the up keep of the studio, where all 90 kids are 7 days a week practicing, as well as being mentored due to the fact they are teenagers ranging from ages 12-21 years of age."
Police were still searching for the assailant or assailants late Monday.
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