8 shot in Chicago party bus, marking city’s 3rd mass shooting in just 6 hours

 

8 shot in Chicago party bus, marking city’s 3rd mass shooting in just 6 hours

15-year-old killed in another.

By Edward Era Barbacena

Eight people who were riding on a party bus in Chicago were shot and wounded late Wednesday night in what was the city’s third mass shooting in just six hours, authorities said.

The vehicle was traveling through Chicago’s North Side just before midnight when at least one drive-by shooter opened fire from a nearby Jeep, striking eight men and women who were partying inside the bus, according to police. All victims survived the attack, but one of the men was hospitalized in critical condition, police said.

The gunfire came just hours after two separate mass shootings terrorized residents in the city’s North Lawndale neighborhood, killing a teenager and leaving multiple people wounded.

In the first incident, an unknown number of shooters opened fire on a group of people around 6 p.m. and fled the scene, said Deputy Chief Ernest Cato, of the Chicago Police Department. A 14-year-old boy who was shot in the head died at a hospital moments later and a 16-year-old boy also shot in the head was hospitalized in critical condition, Cato said at a news conference.

Police investigate the scene of a shooting at the corner of W Douglas Blvd. and S Ridgeway Ave. in Chicago's Lawndale neighborhood, Wednesday, July 21, 2021.

and were said to be in stable condition.

About five minute later, five more people were shot and wounded just three blocks away, though it was not clear if the two nearby attacks were related. An 18-year-old man was in critical condition after that second shooting while a 22-year-old man and three teenage boys — ages 14, 15 and 17 — were in good condition, Cato told reporters.

No one has been arrested in any of the three incidents.

Those wounded in the party bus shooting include a 27-year-old man who was shot in the chest and was in critical condition and a 23-year-old man who was in serious condition after being shot in the groin, according to the Chicago Tribune. The others, ranging in age from 24 to 52, were in either good or fair condition.

A possible motive in the three attacks remains under investigation. Police said they would need the community to help them find the shooters and fight the alarming surge of gun violence in the city.

“This is becoming an effort where we’re going to need an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Cato said. “That approach is going to involve our community, our community getting involved and saying what’s going on, our community who has cell phone pictures, who has Facebook information, we’re going to need your help.”