June 06--Police responding to a call of shots fired early Sunday in Grand Crossing found a silver car in an overgrown alley with the engine running and a man shot dead inside.
Neighbors in the 7900 block of South Drexel Avenue had heard a gunshot about 12:50 a.m. Other than that, not much was known. The man had no identification on him; police estimate he was in his 20s. Several of the houses closest to the car are vacant.
Sergeants and detectives scoured the scene with flashlights, looking for bullet holes in nearby buildings and inspecting the car. A small gray cat crawled under the car and off into the alley.
"That's our witness!" a detective said.
The man found dead was one of nine people shot since Saturday morning. Two of those shootings were fatal; two others left men in critical condition.
At 6:02 p.m. Saturday, a 21-year-old man was shot dead in Gresham, police said. He was in the passenger seat of a car at a gas station in the 8600 block of South Ashland Avenue when someone reached into the car from an open driver's side window and fired at him. He was shot in the chest and right arm and pronounced dead at St. Bernard Hospital, police said.
The man was later identified as Kori O. Sellers, 20, of the 7900 block of South Sangamon Street, the medical examiner's office said Sunday. He was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m.
At 6:05 a.m. Sunday, a 27-year-old man was shot in the head in 4000 block of West Belmont Avenue in Avondale. Earlier, the victim, gotten out of his car to speak with the man who later shot him. An argument between the two ended in gunfire and the attacker fled the scene.
The 27-year-old man was rushed to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he remained in critical condition as of Sunday morning.
In the other critical injury, a 36-year-old man was shot and wounded in Bridgeport at 3 a.m., police said.
He was on the second-floor back porch of his home in the 600 block of West 28th Street smoking a cigarette when someone shot him multiple times, according to police and bystanders at the scene. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition.
He is out on the porch all the time, neighbors said, because he doesn't smoke in the house.
"Whoever did it must have known he goes out there smoking," one neighbor said.
Several large shell casings were found lying in the alley, clustered directly in front of the porch where he was shot.
Two 15-year-old boys were shot within an hour and a half of each other in Back of the Yards:
At 11:25 p.m. Saturday, a 15-year-old boy was in the passenger seat of a car at the intersection of 47th Street and Ashland Avenue when a gunman on foot fired shots and the teen was hit in the back. The driver, who was unharmed, drove north on Ashland Avenue until coming to rest just north of Roosevelt Road, where an ambulance came to take the boy to Stroger Hospital. He was listed in fair condition.
At 12:50 a.m. Sunday, another 15-year-old boy was walking in the 4400 block of South Marshfield Avenue when he heard gunfire and realized he was shot. He was shot in the left leg and back and went to Stroger Hospital. His condition was stabilized.
Other shootings:
At 2 a.m., a 25-year-old man was shot in the arm in the 3500 block of South Vincennes Avenue. He got himself to Provident Hospital, and his condition was stabilized.
At 3:43 p.m., a man and a boy were shot in the 1600 block of East 70th Street.
An 18-year-old man was shot in the left elbow and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the stomach and taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition also stabilized, police said.
