Police this morning are searching for the gunman who fired into a crowd at a South Shore strip mall and wounded six people, including two boys ages 14 and 16.
A seventh person, a woman, was injured running away from the gunfire Monday evening. The victims ranged from good to critical condition as they were taken to hospitals. All were expected to survive, police said.
No suspects were in custody this morning and police released no description of the gunman.
Tamara Moore, a 31-year-old law student, moved out of the city three years ago but returned Monday with a car of dirty clothes for an outing to the laundromat with her younger brother. They had been running late or they would have arrived around the time of the shooting.
The thought was a chilling one, but Moore said she was hardly shaken. "I think I'm habituated to it all," she said. "I'm desensitized. It's not even rage anymore. It's sadness."
The shooting happened about 8:05 p.m. at a strip mall in the 2600 block of East 79th Street, authorities said. The shooter walked up and fired a handgun into a crowd of people, Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines said.
The glass window of a coin laundry was shattered, and police worked into the morning to determine who was wounded inside the laundromat and who were hit outside, officials said.
Paramedics found four of the injured inside the laundromat, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. The three others were outside.
The youngest person shot, a 14-year-old boy, was hit in the leg and taken to Comer Children's Hospital, authorities said. A 16-year-old boy was also shot in the leg and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Three men, ages 41, 43 and 51, suffered wounds to the elbow, arm and leg. A 27-year-old woman was shot in the leg.
A 25-year-old woman injured her toe while running away, police said.
The injured 41 and 43-year-olds were treated at South Shore Hospital, the 51-year-old male was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the 27-year-old female was taken to John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, police said. The 25-year-old woman was treated at Jackson Park Hospital.
Four of the injured, including both boys, were transported in serious-to-critical condition, Langford said. Three were in fair-to-serious condition. Police said later that the conditions of all seven were stabilized.
Police remained outside the laundromat for several hours, blocking 79th Street with yellow tape and directing neighborhood residents around the crime scene.
For Tamesha Ginn, a lifelong South Shore resident who heard the gunfire from her porch, the shooting reflected changes her neighborhood has gone through in the years since her childhood.
"I just wish it could go back to how the neighborhood used to be," said Ginn, a 32-year-old property manager. "It wasn't like this."
The neighborhood wasn't completely free from violence when she grew up, but parents let their children walk to the corner store and jump double dutch without fear they would be caught in crossfire, Ginn said.
"Our kids can't do that," she said. "We can't even go to the laundromat. It's heartbreaking to see things like this."
As Ginn stood near the crime scene with her cousin, Moore, neighbor Alisha Morris walked by. As the three discussed the shooting, Morris, a 27-year-old who had graduated from nursing school a day earlier, said violence had reached the point where she would welcome the National Guard.
Moore, a law student, disagreed but she said policing strategies weren't working. "We need a whole lot more than foot patrols," she said.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
