Two of the victims are 14- and 15-year-olds; both are at Comer Children's Hospital being treated for gunshot wounds. One of them was shot in the arm. Another was shot in the back of the neck.
Police were in the area at 78th and Essex around 9:15 p.m. Thursday when gunshots rang out. Eight people were hit. Seven young men and one woman were hit ranging in age from 14 to 20. Most of the victims have been in stable condition, others are in serious to critical condition.
79th is a known north-south dividing line for gangs.
Moments after police started investigating, some investigators rushed to a nearby motel at 81st and Stony Island. There was a blood trail leading to a room. SWAT teams stormed into that room, but nobody was inside.
There were also other shootings overnight. Those were separate incidents, but in all, 19 people were shot and injured from Thursday night into early Friday morning.
Adrienne Jackson has a 7-year-old son and works the night shift as a nearby nursing home. She was walking to work when the drive-by shooting occurred.
"Maybe if we had resources here in our community we wouldn't be out here trying to rob people or kill people. And it was a group get-together, come through shooting up the block," she said.
"I believe to get the citizens hope in this area that they along with the Cease-Fire branch of South Shore are working diligently and trying to combat this problem to stop the retaliation," said Bob Jackson, CeaseFire.
