Parkway Gardens shooting leaves four people wounded
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Multiple people were shot in the Parkway Gardens housing development Wednesday evening.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, an ambulance was in the middle of the gunfire off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive just south of 63rd Street.
A 16-year-old boy was struck in the chest and was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, police said.
Three others self-transported to the same hospital. A 22-year-old man suffered a graze wound to the leg, a 39-year-old man was shot in the thigh, and a 42-year-old man was shot in the leg, police said. These three victims were all in good condition.
Ambulance 14 was in the complex for an unrelated call of someone with shortness of breath. When the four victims were shot and wounded, people in the complex rushed to the ambulance.
Initial reports indicated the ambulance may have been shot or shot at, but the CFD later said this was not the case.
A crowd surrounded the ambulance in an effort to get the paramedics to respond to a gunshot victim nearby – but the crowd was not hostile to the paramedics, the CFD said.
But the EMT workers initially had no idea if they were in further danger – so they made a 10-1 radio call for police backup.
While the crowd wanted the paramedics to help the four gunshot victims, the paramedics already had the shortness-of-breath patient in the ambulance – who could not leave.
When officers arrived, they learned they were dealing with a mass shooting. Officers locked down the complex – which only has one entrance and exit – as more emergency crews were brought in.
We spotted ambulance 14 pulling back into the firehouse. None of the bullets hit the rig, but the scene on the South Side left community activists to question if the violence will let up anytime soon.
"Seems like we have a new interim superintendent, and I have full faith in him - but he's definitely got a job ahead of us," said antiviolence activist Pastor Donovan Price. "If this is precursor to the summer, then we definitely all have something to worry about."
It remained unclear late Wednesday where the shots came from, or who was behind the shooting. Police late Wednesday were still investigating with no one in custody.
Parkway Gardens is a 13-acre, 694-unit private apartment development. It was constructed between 1950 and 1955.
