Gunfire Attack On Family Leaves Two Women Dead; Baby, Two Men Injured
Updated 09/29/15 - 6:21 p.m.
(CBS) -- Two women were fatally shot, and an 11-month-old boy was injured, in a South Side gunfire attack on a family Monday night that also left two men wounded, Chicago police said.
"It was ugly," said Monique Williams, a family member who said she heard dozens of shots and called police.
Killed was a 46-year-old grandmother, Lolita Wells, and 24-year-old mother of the injured child, Patricia Chew. CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports that Chew was two months pregnant.
The victims had returned from a family gathering around 7:30 p.m., and were walking home near 53rd and Aberdeen streets in Back of the Yards, when someone in a vehicle fired at them. All were hit.
"You have an innocent family coming home from a family outing," an angry Deputy Chief Eugene Roy of the Bureau of Detectives told reporters at the scene. "Somebody opens fire on two women, a child, and two adults ... In a second, two generations of that child's family were wiped out."
The two women were pronounced dead at the hospital. Relatives identified the mother as Chew, the grandmother as Wells, and the boy as Princeton Chew. The two men's names were not released.
"Lolita was shot up from the back," said Williams, a nurse who administered first aid to the victims. "Lolita was all right, then she faded out. Then I got her back and she just kept saying, 'Help me, Monique."
Williams is Lolita Wells' sister-in-law.
"Patricia, unfortunately, she was two months pregnant and she died."
Another shooting overnight left three others dead. In the past two weeks alone, more than 100 people have been shot.
An angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel lashed out about the Back of the Yards shooting Tuesday morning, in a brief statement at an unrelated event.
"I'm going to try to control my anger. We have way too many guns on the streets of the city of Chicago, with too little values, and the penalties that don't match the values of the city of Chicago," Emanuel said. "That gang bangers can get access to guns at will, without a value system, and without a sense of consequences and penalties, to indiscriminately shoot at a car with a grandmother, a mother, a child, and two individuals; it happens with a frequency that is unacceptable."
"Wherever you live, you should be able to get out of your car, and go to your home," Emanuel added. "You can say this happened in the neighborhood of the Back of the Yards, but everybody [who] woke up this morning or heard it last night felt a pain of anguish. It's time that our criminal justice system, and the laws as it relates to access to guns and the penalties for using them reflect the values of the people of the city of Chicago."
The mayor said more needs to be done to limit access to guns.
"If I say anything more, I'll probably to regret what I am going to say, because I am angry at what happened here, and I think I speak for everybody who believes enough is enough," he said.
After police arrived at the scene of the shooting, an officer rushed the baby to Stroger Hospital in a squad car – a move praised by Roy.
"He made the right call," he said.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he'd spent hours today re-evaluating tactics and strategies, But when CBS Chief Correspondent Jay Levine asked about a plan B, it seemed like more of the same.
"First of all, let's keep track of the fact that we just came out of two years of the lowest shooting and murder numbers in the city using the methods that we are using," McCarthy said.
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Princeton Chew was being treated in the intensive care unit at Stroger Hospital, but was expected to recover.
The two adult men who were injured, both 25, were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital. One was in critical condition after surgery; the other was in good condition, Roy said.
No one was in custody.
