6 Kids Shot During Violent Chicago Weekend

April 21--Four girls and a boy were shot after leaving an Easter barbecue and a 15-year-old girl was shot while riding in a vehicle as shootings across the city Sunday night added to the toll of a violent holiday weekend.

The weekend toll for gun violence in the city includes at least 9 people dead and at least 35 wounded. Two of the deaths came Sunday morning when a Cook County sheriff's office correctional officer apparently shot to death his wife, a Chicago police officer, inside their Southwest Side home Sunday morning before turning the gun on himself, authorities said.

The five children shot Sunday night, who range in age from 11 to 15, were shot by someone in a car shortly after 7:30 p.m. on the 6600 block of South Michigan Avenue, police said.

They had recently left a family Easter barbecue to play basketball near a school, said Ernest Porter, an uncle of two of the victims.

Moments before the shooting, someone asked the group whether they belonged to a particular gang, according to Porter and police. The group said they were not, and someone opened fire nonetheless, said Porter, 61, in a brief interview outside University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

One of the five injured, an 11-year-old girl, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, police said late Sunday. Also at Stroger was a 15-year-old girl shot in the arm. Police said her condition was stabilized.

Two 14-year-olds, a girl and a boy, were taken to Comer Children's Hospital after the shooting. The girl, who was shot in the abdomen, was in serious condition, police said. The boy was shot in leg, and police said his condition was stabilized.

A fifth victim, a 14-year-old girl grazed in the buttocks, was taken to St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center after the shooting. Because the girl was not taken by ambulance, officials did not initially include her in the number of people shot.

Early Sunday afternoon, two people died from their injuries in a shooting about 1 p.m. on the 2800 block of South Sawyer Avenue in the West Side's Little Village neighborhood.

A 33-year-old man was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene. The Cook County medical examiner's office said it was notified of a death at that location.

Another man, 19, suffered a wound to his chest and was taken to an area hospital in serious condition, said Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Jose Estrada. He later died from his injuries, Officer Veejay Zala said.

According to a police source, the two men who were killed were traveling in a vehicle with two other adults and two children, ages three and seven. The men were shot on Sawyer Avenue, but after the shooting someone drove them to the 2400 block of South Kedzie Avenue, the source said.

According to the source, police believe the victims were shot by an occupant of an orange or yellow Hummer that fled the scene after the shooting. There was a later report that a car matching the Hummer's description was on fire in an alley on the 3200 block of West 37th Place, about a mile south of where the shootings occurred, but that has not been confirmed by the office of News Affairs.

The Hummer is believed to belong to one of the shooting victims' relatives and it is not clear if there was a confrontation before the shooting. It's also not clear if the Hummer was reported stolen prior to the shooting, according to the source.

Estrada said the circumstances leading up to the fatal shooting were not immediately available.

Earlier Sunday, there were two other shootings in Little Village, each with gang overtones. A 25-year-old man was shot in the abdomen about 1:30 a.m. on Hamlin Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets and a 35-year-old man was shot about an hour later at 27th Street and Kildare Avenue. In both instances, gang slogans were shouted by the attackers.

In other shootings Sunday afternoon:

--About 9:50 p.m., a 17-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man were shot while walking on the sidewalk in the 8200 block of South Avalon Avenue, police said. Two or three people stepped out of an alley and at least one of them opened fire, striking the 17-year-old in the calf and the 18-year-old in the arm.

The boy was taken to Jackson Park Hospital, and the 18-year-old was taken to Advocate Trinity Hospital, police said. Their conditions were stablized.

--About 9:40 p.m., a 15-year-old passenger was shot inside a vehicle stopped at a traffic light in the 1700 block of North Pulaski Road. Three people crossing the street flashed gang signs and at least one of them opened fire at the vehicle, police said.

The girl was struck in the back and the driver took her to Saints Mary and Elizabeth Hospital, where her condition was stabilized.

--Also about 9:40 p.m., a 35-year-old man was shot while standing on the sidewalk in the 900 block of West 19th Street. Someone in a dark-colored SUV fired shots, grazing the man in the neck and striking him in the buttocks. He was in serious condition at Stroger.

--Two men, ages 25 and 20, were shot about 3:28 p.m. Sunday on the 6800 block of South Laflin Street in the city's Englewood neighborhood. The 25-year-old was shot in his shoulder and was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The 20-year-old was shot twice in his face and was self transported to Holy Cross Hospital before being taken by Chicago Fire Department paramedics to Mount Sinai Hospital. His condition was not immediately available, police said.

--Two men, ages 27 and 30, were shot about 9 a.m. on the 8300 block of South Ada Street in the Gresham neighborhood on the South Side, Estrada said. Both suffered gunshot wounds to their backs and were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition. The circumstances leading up to the shooting were not immediately available.

Area South and Area Central detectives were investigating.

Tribune reporter Adam Sege contributed.

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