3-year-old among 14 people shot on West Side: 'It was like a war scene'

Three children were among 14 people wounded in a drive-by shooting on Chicago's West Side Monday night.

The shooting took place around 9:30 p.m. on Halloween night at the intersection of Polk Street and California Avenue.

According to Chicago Police Supt. David Brown, the shooting was caught on video and it appears a vehicle drove by and possibly two gunmen who were inside opened fire on a crowd of people.

The youngest victim was a 3-year-old boy who was shot in both legs and was transported to Stroger Hospital in serious condition. An 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy were also seriously wounded in the shooting.

The other 11 victims are as follows:

  • A 56-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the torso and is listed in serious condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital
  • A 31-year-old man was shot in the leg and was listed in good condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital
  • A female, whose age was unknown, suffered a gunshot wound to the torso was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital
  • A 37-year-old man was shot in the torso and is in critical condition at Stroger Hospital
  • A 51-year-old man was shot in the torso and was listed in serious condition at Stroger Hospital
  • A 35-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was listed in good condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
  • A 48-year-old woman was shot in the leg and was listed in in good condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
  • A 48-year-old man was shot in the head and was listed in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital
  • A 47-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was listed in good condition at Loyola Hospital
  • A 40-year-old woman was shot in the leg and was listed in good condition at Loyola Hospital.

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Additionally, a woman was struck by a vehicle as she was crossing traffic during the shooting.

"It’s over by three seconds," Brown said outside Stroger Hospital, where many of the wounded were taken. "The car’s pulling out after driving by and shooting randomly into the crowd.

"We do not have any motive," he said, adding that officers believe there were two shooters.

"We always worry about retaliation obviously, but we don’t know enough about this, whether it involved a gang conflict or some personal conflict yet, but as soon as we know we’ll share that with the public," Brown said. "And obviously we’re deploying extra police resources in the area to make sure that we can prevent any retaliation if that’s something that’s real."

Richard Dugar was driving by when he got out to try to help the wounded.

"We were just carrying people over," Dugar said. "It was just like a war scene. I mean we gotta pray for our city. It's the greatest city in the world but [there's] too much violence."

Brown said there was a vigil and balloon release taking place at the time of the shooting. 

The shooting is the worst mass attack in Chicago in less than two years. Fifteen people were shot, two fatally, in Greater Grand Crossing in March of 2021. Fifteen people were also shot in July 2020 outside a funeral home in Gresham.

A reward of up to $15,000 is being offered for information leading to charges or conviction. Anyone with information was asked to submit a tip to cpdtip.com.

The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.