Three men were fatally shot and two were wounded early Sunday in gunfire at a Chicago intersection taken over by a drag-racing caravan of more than 100 cars, media reports said citing police officials.
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, representing the area where the shooting occurred, urged the police to crack down on the drag-racing caravans. "This is not just fun and games on the street," Lopez said at Sunday's news conference with Jerome. "We are seeing gangs and criminality join into the drifting and drag-racing," reported ABC News.
At about 4 am, a shooting erupted at an intersection in the Brighton Park neighbourhood on the city's Southwest side, commander Don Jerome of the Chicago Police Department said at a news conference.
Police officers were responding to complaints of a drag-racing caravan. They received information that several cars were peeling rubber (accelerating the cars rapidly) and doing doughnuts (make the car spin in tight circles) in the middle of an intersection, Jerome said.
"There was drifting in the middle of the street and approximately 100 cars had gained control of the intersection," he added.
Later the officers received ShotSpotter (gunshot detection system) gunshot detection alert. Officers at one of the police department's Strategic Decision Support Centers were monitoring the incident via a live video feed. The alert received was of at least 13 shots at the intersection and "people hitting the ground (drop down to the ground suddenly when the gunfire started) ", reported ABC News.
Once the police officials arrived the scene, they found that five people had been shot and were all taken to hospitals in private vehicles. According to Jerome, four men with gunshot wounds were taken to Holy Cross Hospital. One was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
Upon arriving at a hospital three men were declared dead while two others were in serious condition. Two 20-year-old men were among those who died, police said. Authorities did not release the age for the third man fatally shot. Moreover, their names were also not immediately released.
The two men who were injured were a 19-year-old and a 21-year-old reported ABC News. At the crime scene, investigators recovered multiple shell casings. The recovery suggested that more than one gunman was involved, Jerome said.
However, no arrests have been made till now. "All three of the decedents did have a gang affiliation," Jerome said. He added police are searching for "one or two" people police suspect were involved in the shooting, adding, they "are not necessarily those in the hospital."
( With inputs from ANI )
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