A drive-by shooting outside Loretto Hospital in Chicago's South Austin neighborhood left four people wounded early Sunday, including a 45-year-old man now fighting for his life. Police say the victims were standing outside when someone inside an SUV pulled up and opened fire before speeding off.
The shooting injured four people just steps from the West Side hospital, according to ABC7 Chicago. Officers responded around 2:27 a.m. to the 600 block of South Central Avenue near West Harrison Street, as reported by FOX 32 Chicago. The station reported that the gunman fired shots from the SUV and fled the scene, leaving behind a chaotic aftermath just outside the hospital's doors.
The most seriously hurt victim, a 45-year-old man, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, per the same account. A 39-year-old woman was shot in the chest; FOX 32 reported she self-transported to Loretto Hospital in good condition, while CBS Chicago reported that she and a 30-year-old man were both taken to Loretto Hospital and listed in good condition.
Two More Victims Treated at West Side Hospitals
That 30-year-old man was shot in the neck and left shoulder and was also listed in good condition at Loretto Hospital, the station's report notes. A fourth victim, a 28-year-old man, was shot twice in the face and self-transported to Stroger Hospital, where he too was listed in good condition.
Area Four detectives were assigned to investigate the shooting, according to the same ABC7 report. No further details on a shooter, motive, or possible arrests have been released.
Shooting Fits Into a Rockier Year on the West Side
The gunfire outside Loretto lands amid a year that has already seen Chicago's violence numbers tick upward compared to 2025's historic lows. Citywide, Chicago recorded 130 homicides through the first four months of 2026, compared with 120 during the same stretch the year before, according to WTTW News. April alone brought 32 homicides, a 39% jump from the 23 recorded in April 2025, while shootings citywide rose 5% to 421 over the same four-month span.
On the West Side specifically, the trend had been moving in the other direction for much of the year. Shooting victims across four community areas that largely make up the West Side were down 5% year to date, with 258 victims compared with 272 over the same period the previous year, per Block Club Chicago. That outlet attributed the earlier decline in part to violence-prevention groups working to reduce gang or group-on-group conflict.
But Block Club Chicago also reported a sharp late-summer reversal: since July 29, Austin, North Lawndale, and East and West Garfield Park saw 49 shooting victims, a nearly 20% increase over the same period the previous year. Sunday's shooting near Loretto Hospital adds another violent incident to that recent stretch in and around Austin.
