4 shot, 2 critically injured, in the midst of funeral procession near Chicago
Four people were shot and wounded during a funeral procession in the Chicago area on Saturday afternoon, authorities said. One person had critical injuries and another was listed as being in critical but stable condition that night, after both were admitted to a local hospital. The other two victims received treatment at a different hospital, where their injuries were not considered life-threatening.
The shooting happened at about 1 p.m. in Oak Park, a suburban village about 10 miles from downtown Chicago, as the procession traveled from the city to a cemetery around 30 minutes north, in Des Plaines, according to Oak Park police.
With the procession en route to the cemetery, a white pickup truck pulled up next to one of the vehicles and someone inside started firing weapons into that car, striking two passengers, the village of Oak Park said in a news release, citing law enforcement officials. The wounded passengers were taken to Loyola Medical Center, where they were listed in critical and critical but stable condition.
The pickup truck then targeted a second vehicle in the funeral procession, and two passengers in that car were shot, according to the news release. Both of those victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and took themselves to Rush Oak Park Hospital. Police said multiple shell casings were recovered at the scene.
Authorities say the shooting was apparently a targeted attack, CBS Chicago reported. They have not identified a suspect or suspects. Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said in a statement that whomever carried out the shooting likely does not pose a wider threat to the community.
"While there is no indication of any further threat to the community stemming from this incident, any act of gun violence such as this does great harm to our collective sense of safety," Johnson said.
It is not uncommon for shootings to occur during funeral proceedings around the Oak Park area, according to police and local residents. Tara Gerou, a business owner in the village, told CBS Chicago that she was not surprised by the incident.
"This is something that we talk about very often," Gerou said. "I don't think that it is an easy answer because we want to be respectful of people's ability to mourn their dead, but when that ability now interferes with our public safety in our communities, it becomes a difficult topic."
"It was very unsettling how desensitized perhaps we become when this is the third shooting that has happened in a while, in ... about a week and a half or two weeks," Gerou continued. "We have had three shootings. One in front of an elementary school where my son goes to school, one right down the street just earlier this week and now what feels way too close to home."
Oak Park officials said in their news release that it is "standard protocol ... for funeral homes to alert law enforcement agencies along the route of potentially high-risk funeral processions so officers can assist with traffic flow and the safety of participants and the public along the route." An alert was not shared with police in this instance, according to the release.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the shooting to report what they know to the Oak Park Police Department.
