Police question several in Roseland fatal shooting

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Police are questioning several people after a 77-year-old man was shot and killed in his home in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood. Two young boys and a woman were also wounded in the shooting.

A relative said Odell Branch Sr. was watching television with his 5-year-old great grandson in his home in the 200-block of West 105th Street when bullets came through a window around 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Branch was shot in the head and his great grandson was shot in the arm. Both were taken to Advocate Christ Hospital, where Branch later died. The 5-year-old boy, who was always by his great grandfather's side, was released from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon. His mother says he doesn't completely understand what happened to his great grandfather.

"He told the doctors and nurses, 'I saw granddaddy fall off the couch.' And I know that's something that's going to be embedded in his mind for the rest of his life, especially how close they were," said Sheena Godfrey, mother and granddaughter of the victims.

Outside the home, a close family friend was shot in the chest as she put her 2-year-old son in a parked car. The child was shot in the shoulder and remains hospitalized.

The family friend said she and her family were in town visiting for a birthday celebration, and that they actually moved from Chicago to get away from the violence. She did not want her face to appear on camera.

"I unbuckled my seatbelt and jumped in the back. I was trying to take him out but the bullets just started hitting my van so hard. I just covered him up," the woman said.

Her 2-year-old son was shot in the shoulder and now has a punctured lung and broken ribs. She was hit, too, but her injuries were not her priority yesterday or today.

"He doesn't deserve this. He didn't ask to be here but he's here and he still need to live a life, just as well as the rest of the children. Our children are the future but, how they going to have a future when you all out here just shooting and killing. It's too much violence," the woman said.

CHURCH DEACON KILLED BY STRAY BULLET

Odell Branch was a retired maintenance worker and a deacon at Gospel Temple Baptist Church for more than 30 years. Irene Branch, who was married to the 77-year-old victim for more than 50 years, said she is grief-stricken and angry.

"Yes I am. I am! Because they took my soul!" Irene Branch said.

Irene said she and her husband considered moving back home to Mississippi, but decided to stay in Chicago to be here for their children and grandchildren.

The couple had six children. Frederick Branch, their youngest son, said he was home when the shooting occurred and held the 5-year-old boy until paramedics arrived. He is heartsick over his father's death.

"My mom and my dad, they like to sit on the porch in the morning," Frederick Branch said, before a long pause. "Can't even do it."

Police said they are speaking to several persons of interest but they have not yet made any arrests. Police suspect a teenage relative of one of the victims was the intended target.