Chicago police are questioning a person of interest after 13 people were wounded, four of them critically, during a shooting inside a memorial gathering early Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.
More people were wounded in the shooting than at any other in the city since at least 2013, when 13 people were shot in Back of the Yards, according to data gathered by the Tribune.
The violence began about 12:40 a.m. at a house party in the 5700 block of South May Street commemorating the birthday of a man who died in a previous shooting. Someone at the party opened fire, sending 13 people to area hospitals, according to Chicago police.
The injured ranged in age from 16 to 48, and a 16-year-old boy was one of those in critical condition, though it was later improved to “serious,” said Fred Waller, who heads the patrol division for Chicago police.
Two people remained in critical condition as of Sunday afternoon, according to Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman: a 40-year-old man who’d been shot in the chest and was being treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and a 21-year old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the back, who was at St. Bernard Hospital.
Two people initially were detained and questioned after the shooting. On Sunday night, police announced a charge of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon against Marciano White, 37, saying that he was seen leaving the scene holding a bag across his body and attempted to flee when officers tried to talk to him. No other charges have been announced.
The party was in honor of Lonell Irvin, a 22-year-old man fatally shot near the intersection of State Street and Ida B. Wells Drive during an attempted carjacking April 26 in the Loop, according to multiple people at the scene.
Authorities said Irvin was wielding his own gun when he attempted to carjack a man with a license to carry a concealed handgun, who police said grabbed his weapon from the glove compartment and shot Irvin in the head. Authorities at the time categorized the shooter, who likely was rear-ended in a ploy to steal his 2015 BMW, as the victim in the incident.
