CHICAGO _ A group of women got out of a car Christmas morning in Chicago's the South Shore neighborhood and approached an officer guarding a crime scene.
"Is he dead?" one woman asked.
She collapsed to the pavement after the officer told hert hat a 21-year-old man had died. Another woman, holding a toddler, sat on the roadway and screamed.
Their relative was shot in the head just before 12:50 a.m. Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not release any other details about the shooting.
He was one of three men who were killed in shootings from Saturday to Sunday. Nine other people were wounded in separate shootings.
The 21-year-old man who was killed in South Shore could be seen on the ground of the snow-covered yard near a large tree. Two cars were parked in the yard. Across the street, motorists continued to stop by a busy gas station.
A man who goes by the nickname "Wheels" stopped at the gas station after seeing a man upset about the shooting. He said he knew the man who was killed.
"He was a good dude," Wheels said. "He probably got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Wheels was paralyzed in a 1992 in a drive-by shooting in the South Shore area.
"It's like lightning striking the same place," he said.
As officers combed the yard for evidence, family members continued to arrive at the scene. They declined to comment.
Family and friends at times argued among one another. Other times, they grew angry with police officers because the victim remained outside.
A police vehicle arrived at the scene early Sunday to pick up the body. A group of women watched officers place the body into the vehicle.
"That's my baby!" one woman yelled.
In the Gage Park neighborhood, an 18-year-old man was when someone shot him. He was hit in the neck and back.
The man was taken in critical condition to a hospital, where and he was later pronounced dead, police said.
About 8:55 p.m. Saturday, a 20-year-old man was killed on the Southwest Side, police said.
The victim was found in a backyard there, shot in the left side. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
