Chicago continues to witness drive-by shootings as another incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, leaving three wounded outside a church.
What happened
At 2:30 pm on Sunday, a gray sedan drove by Universal Community Missionary Baptist Church in the Roseland neighborhood on the southside of Chicago.
It opened fire at a group of funeral attendees.
The group was taking pictures when the shooter drove by.
The incident left three people wounded – a 20-year-old man shot in the abdomen, a 37-year-old man with a wound on the thigh, and a 25-year-old man shot in the back.
The victims
The 20-year-old man suffered the most damage, getting shot in the abdomen, shoulder and legs.
Despite his wounds, he was transported to Roseland Hospital in good condition.
The 37-year-old man suffered wounds on the upper right thigh and was also taken to Roseland Hospital in good condition.
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Aftermath
“I heard something go pop, pop, pop,” said a person who lived nearby.
“I said to my husband, ‘They’re shooting out there.’ He ran to the door and I said, ‘You come back here! What’re you running out there for?’ You know what I’m saying.
So it’s getting bad. You just gotta pray to God. It’s just terrible.”
Community activist Andrew Holmes chimed in, saying, “Paying their respects, going in and coming out, when these individuals discharge this weapon.
“On a day when people should be coming together, should be growing and loving, and now there’s a community in confusion and chaos,” said Pastor Donovan Price.
Children were also present at the funeral and were ushered out of the church by police.
“We’ve got to find out who these individuals are, and I’m saying it over and over again,” said Holmes.
“When these detectives put that paperwork in the state’s attorney’s office, we’re going to have to do more to keep these people inside of there. And it starts at home.”
The funeral
The funeral at Universal Community Missionary Baptist Church was for community figure Mike Nash, best known as “Big Mike.”
Nash was described as a nice guy who worked as an anti-violence activist. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack.
“Big Mike, everybody knew him, I knew him, and I know he wouldn’t be happy at this type of situation,” said Price.
“Events like this should be a love event, an event where people get together with commonality, and that commonality is a loved one – and to have something like this happen in the middle of it, it’s almost twice as shocking as if it happened at a regular event.”
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His cousin Kareem House was in town from California for the funeral when the family gathered to take a group photo.
As they posed for a picture, shots rang out.
“We’re not even from over here,” he said. “We don’t know what’s going on.”
Kareem House was hit with a minor graze wound in his central abdomen – the wound wasn’t severe enough to require medical attention.
“This to me was a deadly sneak attack, you know, you’re hunting our individuals down for nothing,” said Holmes.
“Whatever beef, whatever rivalry you have, you have just walked away and left it alone. They had to know the funeral was taking place, you had the loved ones with the individual’s pictures on their shirts.”
References:
Confusion and chaos: 3 shot in drive-by shooting outside funeral on far south side, police say
3 funeral attendees shot outside of Chicago church
Three people shot in drive-by outside church during funeral in Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood
