At least 31 people have been shot, five fatally, since Friday evening. One of those shootings left a five-year-old girl dead.
The girl’s father is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds. He is hospitalized in good condition.
The girl has been identified to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as Reig Ware from Lincoln, Illinois.
Police said just after 3:30 a.m. Sunday, a group of people were standing outside near south Campbell and Jackson when shots were fired.
Witnesses said at least four men hopped out of a car and started shooting in what appeared to be a targeted ambush.
Police said the child was inside a parked car when she was shot.
A 24-year-old man who was standing outside the car, was shot twice in the leg.
A man who asked not to have his face shown saw it all unfold from his bedroom window.
“I heard one shot, then 30, 40 more shots,” the witness said. “They’ve been partying over there for the last week, just chilling. Ain’t heard one shot. I don’t know what went wrong.”
27th Ward Alderman Walter Burnett said the girl’s father was the other shooting victim. Burnett said they were visiting Chicago.
Meanwhile, no one in custody and police are looking into a motive.
Minutes earlier, a man was shot to death while standing on a sidewalk on the city’s West Side, police said.
Note: According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 46 homicides across the city last month, which marked a 28% increase over the same month in 2023. That total is also tied for the second most homicides recorded in any such month over the past decade.
The number of shootings (159) and shooting victims (190) recorded last month were also up significantly over March 2023.
March also saw the deadliest weekend of the year to date, when 7 people were killed over the Easter weekend, including two teens who were killed in separate mass shootings.
Despite those upticks in gun violence, the total number of shootings (410) and shooting victims (476) in Chicago year-to-date are each at their lowest points since 2019.
The 111 homicides recorded this year is the fewest through the first three months of a year since 2021.
