Twelve persons were reportedly shot last night in a Chicago park at about 10:15. Victims included a three-year-old who was shot in the face. The initial report was that there were eleven victims of the mass shooting.
According to the Chicago Tribune , “Three of the victims, including the child, were taken to local hospitals in serious-to-critical condition.” Details about this mas shooting in Chicago’s south side are still unfolding, however. “A witness at the scene said three police officers carried the child to an ambulance.’I didn’t hear no sounds,’ from the child, he said.”
No suspects have as yet been taken into custody.
The incident occurred at a basketball court near Cornell Square Park in Chicago in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. About 60 police officers responded to the shooting. Multiple ambulances also responded to the scene to treat those injured and transport them to hospitals.
A witness who spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times said that “dreadlocked gunmen in a gray sedan fired at him at the corner of Wood and 51st before turning north on Wood and shooting up the park” and added that his three-year-old nephew was shot in the cheek.
Chicago media is also reporting, in separate incidents Thursday evening, six other residents were shot, one of whom died from multiple bullet wounds.
As we reported previously, Chicago had more total murders in 2012 than any other US city, including New York City and Los Angeles based on FBI data. Chicago homicides totaled 500 last year, most of which were gun-related crimes .
Late last year, longtime Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass asserted that the high crime rate in a city which has strict gun control laws is the result of a gang war going on primarily in the west and south areas of the city and that Chicago police are undermanned and outgunned.
