A 40-year-old woman and two men, ages 41 and 46, were standing near a corner in the 3000 block of West Flournoy Street on Chicago’s West Side Saturday afternoon when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside opened fire, wounding all three. The 41-year-old man was shot in the neck and remains in critical condition, while the woman and the other man were both listed in fair condition after being hit in the leg and buttocks, respectively.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the 41-year-old man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, and the 40-year-old woman was also transported to Mount Sinai, where she was listed in fair condition. The 46-year-old man was taken to Stroger Hospital, also in fair condition. As reported by ABC7 Chicago, the shooting happened around 2:49 p.m. in the 3000 block of West Flournoy Street, and a car pulled up before someone inside began shooting.
Area Four detectives are investigating the shooting, per the Sun-Times. No arrests have been made in connection with the incident, and police have not released a suspect description or said what may have led to the gunfire.
A Pattern of Violence on the West Side
Saturday’s shooting adds to a string of recent violent incidents across East Garfield Park and neighboring West Side communities. In July, at least seven people were shot during a large street gathering in East Garfield Park, according to a report from CWBChicago. That outlet reported that multiple shooters were believed responsible, and that Chicago police officers were already on scene because of the size of the crowd when the gunfire erupted.
CWBChicago’s account detailed how a 17-year-old girl was shot in the chest and critically injured around 1:25 a.m. in the 3800 block of West Maypole Avenue. Less than 10 minutes later, multiple shooters opened fire on the same block, wounding six more people, the outlet reported.
In a separate incident, two people were shot to death in broad daylight in East Garfield Park on South Pulaski Road, according to police and family members cited by ABC7 Chicago. The station reported that at about the same time, three people were hurt in a drive-by shooting in a Humboldt Park parking lot, though police did not say whether the two incidents were connected.
Shooting Numbers Climb in Nearby Communities
The violence comes amid a documented rise in shootings across parts of the West Side. Since July 29, Austin, North Lawndale, and East and West Garfield Park recorded 49 shooting victims, a nearly 20 percent increase over the same period the previous year, according to Block Club Chicago. Seventeen of those victims were shot specifically in East and West Garfield Park, a nearly 42 percent jump from the prior year, the outlet reported.
Despite the recent spike, the same report noted that shooting victims across the four West Side community areas were actually down 5 percent for the year overall, with 258 victims compared with 272 during the same period the previous year. Block Club Chicago’s reporting also pointed to a teen gathering over the July 4th weekend in West Garfield Park that ended with seven teens and young adults shot, including one person critically injured, and noted that more than 250 people had been shot on the West Side that year, over 700 fewer than through the same period in 2016.
No further updates on the condition of Saturday’s three victims have been released, and investigators have not said whether the Flournoy Street shooting is connected to any other recent incident in the area.
