A 73-year-old man was left in critical condition and a 23-year-old man was hospitalized in good condition after a shooting Saturday on the 7100 block of South Jeffery Boulevard in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood. The older victim suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks, while the younger man drove himself to the hospital after being wounded in the same incident.
According to ABC7 Chicago, both men were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, with the 23-year-old arriving around 11:20 a.m. after transporting himself to the hospital. Police have not said what led up to the shooting, and Area One detectives are investigating. Authorities had not released further details as of Saturday evening.
The station's report does not indicate whether the two victims knew each other or were together when they were shot, and it remains unclear whether the shooting was a walk-up or drive-by attack. No suspect description has been released.
A Block With a Violent Recent History
Saturday's shooting is the latest in a string of gun violence incidents on this exact stretch of South Jeffery Boulevard. Less than a month earlier, on July 31, a 15-year-old boy was shot on the same block and suffered two graze wounds to his thigh, according to FOX 32 Chicago, which reported that the teen was uncooperative with investigators at the scene.
In November 2025, a 43-year-old man was critically injured after being shot in the upper back on the same block, per CBS News Chicago, which reported that officers found the victim late that Friday night before rushing him to the hospital. And in July 2025, a 29-year-old woman was killed and a 37-year-old woman was wounded during a robbery shooting inside a residence on the 7100 block, with police saying a known male suspect demanded belongings before opening fire, as reported by the same outlet.
The block's troubled history stretches back further still. In February 2024, a 30-year-old suspect was shot in the leg by a licensed concealed-carry holder during an alleged home invasion on the 7100 block, in a break-in police investigated as domestic-related. Just a few blocks away, a 51-year-old man was found fatally shot inside a residence on the adjacent 6700 block of South Jeffery Boulevard in an earlier Hoodline fatal shooting report, with Area One detectives leading that investigation as well.
Where the Wounded Get Treated
Both men shot Saturday were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, which reopened its Level 1 adult trauma center in May 2018 after a 30-year absence of adult trauma facilities on Chicago's South Side. As The Trace has reported, grassroots campaigning helped bring trauma care back to the area to eliminate what had long been described as a trauma desert, and the hospital remains the routine destination for critically injured gunshot victims from across the South Side.
The 7100 block of South Jeffery Boulevard falls within the Chicago Police Department's 3rd District, known as Grand Crossing, which is headquartered at 7040 South Cottage Grove Avenue under Commander John Cleggett and covers Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Englewood, and South Shore.
Citywide Numbers Show a Slight Uptick
Saturday's shooting adds to a citywide picture that has ticked upward this year after a historic low. Through the first six months of 2026, Chicago recorded 686 shootings resulting in 858 shooting victims and 210 homicides citywide, a nearly 6% increase in homicides over the same period in 2025, according to WTTW News. The increase follows 2025's historic 60-year low in total homicides citywide.
At the same time, police have stepped up efforts to pull illegal guns off the streets. Chicago police officers recovered 5,149 illegal firearms citywide during the first six months of 2026, averaging roughly 28 gun seizures per day, with the department seizing 857 firearms in June alone, per the same WTTW report. Citywide property crime and robberies have dropped this year even as shootings and homicides remain slightly elevated.
If a suspect is identified and charged in Saturday's shooting, Illinois law classifies battery committed by discharging a firearm as aggravated battery, a felony that carries mandatory prison time without the option of probation, with sentencing escalating based on injury severity or victim age. No arrests have been announced, and Area One detectives continue to investigate.
