Fourteen people were shot near a funeral home on the South Side of Chicago and one person was taken into custody on Tuesday night, authorities said, as President Trump prepares to deploy federal agents to the city in an effort to curb gun violence.
After shots were fired from a black vehicle toward a group of people leaving a service at Rhodes Funeral Services at 6:30 p.m., the attendees exchanged gunfire with the people in the car, Chicago Police Department spokesman Tom Ahern told The Washington Post. The car crashed and three or four occupants fled in separate directions, authorities said. Ahern said 60 shell casings were found at the scene.
One person has been taken in by police for questioning, but no arrests have been made in the case, First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter said at a news conference. Authorities have not released a motive behind the shooting, one of the worst in Chicago’s recent history.
The 14 people injured were taken to five hospitals for medical treatment, Ahern said. Their conditions remain unclear as of early Wednesday, but Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said at a news conference that most of the victims were taken to the hospitals in serious condition. The Chicago Tribune reported that victims between the ages of 22 and 40 suffered gunshot wounds to their chests, buttocks, arms and hands.
“We went out in the street and all we saw was bodies just laying everywhere. They were shot up everywhere,” resident Arnita Geder told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We thought it was a war out here. It’s ridiculous all the shooting that’s going on out here, it really has to stop.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) denounced the actions of the “cowardly gunmen,” writing on Twitter that the shooting was “another senseless tragedy.”
“When a person picks up a gun, we suffer as a city. This cannot be who we are,” the mayor tweeted. “Too many guns are on our streets and in the hands of people who should never possess them. These individuals will be held accountable.”
The shooting comes as federal agents are preparing to deploy to the city.
On Tuesday, Lightfoot, who threatened to sue Trump this week if he acted without her permission, appeared cautiously ready to accept federal agents. The mayor said at a news conference she received clarification that the efforts in Chicago would be related to gun violence and not resemble the heavy-handed tactics seen recently in Portland, Ore., where agents have clashed with protesters.
“We welcome actual partnership, but we do not welcome dictatorship,” Lightfoot said Tuesday. “We do not welcome authoritarianism, and we do not welcome the unconstitutional arrests and detainments of our residents, and that is something I will not tolerate.”
As The Post reported, some of the city’s leaders remain skeptical of assurances from the Trump administration about the federal agents’ role in Chicago.
Asked about how the Chicago Police Department would specifically work with the federal agents, Ahern pointed to the department’s existing relationships with several agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“We’ve had a long-running, great relationship with all of the agencies in Chicago, and we hope to continue those partnerships,” he told The Post.
Chicago is going through one of its most violent years in recent memory. Compared with this time last year, shootings in the city are up 47 percent, going from 1,110 in 2019 to 1,637 now, according to Chicago Police Department data. Homicides have increased by 51 percent, spiking from 275 at this time in 2019 to 414 as of Sunday.
The Tuesday night shooting was Chicago’s worst in recent years. Two different shootings resulted in 13 people wounded in the past seven years — one at Cornell Square Park in 2013 and another at a memorial gathering in 2019.
Carter, the deputy superintendent, told reporters that a squad car was assigned to monitor the funeral because of the large number of mourners. It’s unclear whether there were any warnings from community anti-violence activists that trouble was imminent, he said. The funeral was for a 31-year-old man who was shot and killed last week on the South Side, the Sun-Times reported.
Kenneth Hughes was watching TV when he heard gunfire erupt outside the funeral home. He told WMAQ that he saw a car with “six bullet holes in it” and that it appeared the people who were shot coming out of the service were wearing white.
“Unfortunately, it appears like it was planned because as the people were coming out of the funeral home, then the shots rang out like they were literally waiting on them to come out,” Hughes said.
The investigation remains ongoing and police are expected to provide an update on the victims and the case on Wednesday morning, Ahern said.
