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‘It’s a War Out Here’: More Than a Dozen People Were Shot at a Funeral in Chicago

The funeral itself was reportedly for another shooting victim.
Tyler LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP
Tyler LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP

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At least 15 people were wounded in Chicago on Tuesday night when someone fired shots from a car at people at a funeral home, according to local reports.

Chicago Police first deputy superintendent Eric Carter told reporters that around 6:30 p.m., a black vehicle began opening fire on people outside of a funeral home in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the city’s South Side. Some people at the funeral returned fire at the car, which crashed and sent “multiple occupants” fleeing in different directions.

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The funeral itself was reportedly for another shooting victim. Donnie Weathersby, 31, was shot and killed on July 14 in the city’s Englewood neighborhood.

Video of the Tuesday night incident posted by local Fox 32 reporter Tia A. Ewing shows people fleeing as you can audibly hear shots being fired. Police had one person in custody as of last night, Carter said.

Six people were hospitalized in serious condition on Tuesday night, and victims were as young as 21 and as old as 65, according to local reports. “I saw body after body on the ground,” one witness told CBS Chicago. “It’s a war out here.” Ten of the 15 victims were women.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted about the effect of gun violence on the city, which has seen a 47 percent increase in shooting incidents over this time last year as of July 19, according to police statistics.

“Far too many have suffered,” Lightfoot wrote. “Far too many have attended funerals and tried to start the process of healing entire communities following another senseless tragedy. When a person picks up a gun, we suffer as a city. This cannot be who we are.”

The shooting comes as President Donald Trump plans to deploy federal troops to Chicago, despite an outcry over the conduct in Portland of federal police including the U.S. Marshals and Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) divisions. Though the full scope of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission is unclear, the Chicago Tribune reported earlier this week that 150 federal agents are “to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts.”

On Tuesday, before the shooting, Lightfoot tweeted: “Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents.”

Trump has also threatened to send federal police into other cities including Oakland, New York, and Philadelphia, threats that appear to target large, racially diverse cities that are Democratic strongholds. “We’re not going to let this happen in our country,” Trump said in the Oval Office earlier this week. “All run by liberal Democrats.”

Cover: Chicago police investigate the scene of a mass shooting where more then a dozen people were shot in the Gresham neighborhood, of Chicago, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. (Tyler LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)