After a mass shooting Sunday morning in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood that left seven people shot, including one fatally, neighbors expressed frustration that their calls to break up a large gathering before the shooting went unheeded .
A group had gathered outside in the 4800 block of West Iowa Street around 1 a.m. when an argument broke out and unknown people began shooting, according to Chicago police.
Police found a 25-year-old woman at the scene unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds. She was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Six other people were also shot. Five were taken to hospitals in good condition and one was in critical condition, police said.
When about 100 people gathered in an empty lot a few blocks from her home for a loud party hours before the shooting, Michelle Barnes said she sensed trouble. Cars blocked the street and filled the alley, he said Sunday afternoon.
Barnes said he called police to report the chaotic crowd at 10 p.m., 11:05 p.m. and a third time around 12:30 a.m. A police car arrived at the scene, but there was no significant response before the shots rang out, he added. .
“I’m frustrated with the police. I’m frustrated with the councilman. I’m frustrated with everybody. Because it’s ridiculous,” Barnes said. “When you call, they don’t come like there’s a problem.”
Police confirmed Sunday that the shooting happened after a group had gathered to remember a man killed in a car crash four years ago. Burnt and fallen tea candles lay on the sidewalk at the scene of the shooting Sunday afternoon.
Asked how police had responded to the meeting before the shooting, a police spokesman said the only information available had already been shared in a statement and at an early morning news conference.
Remnants of the violent shootout littered the empty, covered lot. A black SUV sitting near the scene had bullet holes in the trunk and rear passenger window. A few strips of yellow police tape remained. Purple latex gloves commonly used by paramedics were strewn on the sidewalk, where a bloody shirt was left.
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Barnes, 56, said he now wants to move. He would leave his parents’ house, where he has spent his whole life. He wondered aloud what it would take to keep his block safe as violence seems to be closing in on him.
“We can’t even live in peace,” he said.
Larell Steel, Barnes’ next-door neighbor, said her sister across the street and other neighbors also made repeated calls to police before the shooting.
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“Everybody on this block called them to have kids,” Steel said, as the two women talked on their porches Sunday afternoon. “This could have been avoided. This could have been avoided if only the kids had come to break it up.”
Most of the single-family homes on the block are filled with elderly residents, Steel said. The shooting came as a surprise, but trouble has cropped up on the typically peaceful street in recent months, he said, pointing to a rowdy gathering on a nearby corner last summer and a brief period of drug dealing on an open lot in the across the street last year. .
Steel said she had been asleep when the meeting began, but woke up when her sister called to warn her of the potential danger. He said he called police after hearing dozens of gunshots.
Steel said he saw testing technicians place dozens of yellow markers on the street when he left Sunday morning.
The youths who filled the empty lot appeared to come from outside the neighborhood, Steel said, adding that he wished parents had prevented their children from attending the ultimately violent gathering.
“They just come, see a nice flat block and take over, as if we can’t do anything about it. And apparently there’s nothing we can do about it, because we call people and we don’t get any help,” Steel said.
Across West Iowa Street, Carl Raynor also sat on his porch Sunday afternoon. He said he woke up to gunfire the night before, thinking the bangs were firecrackers until loved ones called to make sure he was safe in the morning. He has lived on the streets since 1976, but said he now hopes to move out of state.
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Raynor, 57, said he was shot in the back in May 2022 when he interceded as someone tried to steal his sister’s catalytic converter from her car. In recent years, violence seemed harder to escape, he said.
“It’s everywhere,” Raynor said. “The police can only do so much. People need to speak up and say something, because once it’s one of your children or grandchildren, you’re going to want help.”
The youngest of the injured victims was a 17-year-old girl who was shot in the leg, police said. She was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in good condition.
Three men in their 20s and a woman in their 20s were taken to Stroger Hospital in good condition. A 29-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the chest and arm was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, police said.
Precinct 4 detectives are investigating the shooting. Police said no one is in custody.
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