fb-pixelWounded gang member behind Chicago shooting - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Wounded gang member behind Chicago shooting

CHICAGO — A Chicago man who was clipped in the leg by gunfire went looking for revenge, leading fellow gang members to a crowded park, where one of them unleashed more than a dozen bullets from an assault rifle in a shooting that wounded 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy, authorities say.

Thursday night's attack at a basketball court on Chicago's southwest side did injure several gang members. But the rapid spray of bullets also struck bystanders in a shooting that has again focused national attention on gang bloodshed in the nation's third-largest city.

Authorities announced Tuesday that four men have been charged, including the suspected primary shooter, a second man accused of firing a .22-caliber revolver, a lookout, and the man prosecutors say supplied the assault rifle.

Advertisement



A judge denied bail for the group, who appeared lined up in court still wearing the street clothes they had on when they were arrested. Each is charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, though additional charges were expected. A defense attorney said each of the four denied the charges, and one of their mothers cried in the second row of the gallery.

''There's a super-heated group of individuals who are involved in gun violence as both victims and offenders,'' police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said at a news conference. ''And in this case we've got them both wrapped into one.

''This individual was a victim of gun violence and then became the offender,'' he said of the man that authorities say was the central player in the shooting.

Associated Press