Couple killed in shooting near 31st Street Beach; 3 arrested, Chicago police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Two people were killed in a shooting near 31st Street Beach Friday morning, Chicago police said.

Several guns and dozens of shell casings could be seen on the pavement inside the parking lot near the 31st Street Beach boat ramp where a 23-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were killed.

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The brother of one of the victims said he was on the phone with his brother and could hear him starting to argue with other people at the beach and then gunfire broke out.

Family identified one of the victims as 23-year-old Elijah Dillon Bombin, who had gone there to pick up his girlfriend.

"He was like trying to come get his girl," Albert Galvan, the victim's brother, said. "He was like, 'I don't want my girl here. I just wanna go. I don't want her around all these guys' so he came up here to try to pick her up."

Galvan said he was on the phone with his brother when he heard him arguing with other people.

"I could hear it on the phone. They're talking stuff, saying, 'I'm going to shoot you,' this and that, threatening each other," Galvan said. "Out of nowhere we hear was like a guy yell, 'Oh watch this,' and like 20 seconds later, all you hear in the phone is gunshots."

Police said the shooting erupted at about 3:20 a.m., with Bombin exchanging gunfire with several people. Officers took three people into custody.
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Galvan said the other victim who died was Bombin's girlfriend, the mother of their two young children.

"So now, it's like, they ain't got no parents, and I got, I gotta grow up with them being like, 'Yeah, this was your dad. This was your mom,' and I got to tell them how they was because they will never get to like realize it for themselves," Galvan said. "It just feels unreal. It feels like I'm just dreaming right now, like I don't wanna believe it."

The incident comes after two women were shot, one fatally, near the beach Wednesday night.

Police said shots were fired at a large gathering. A 22-year-old woman was shot three times in the chest and later died at a local hospital. A 20-year-old woman was shot in the leg, but is expected to recover

The violence is too much for the city and many families to bear.

"People killing people for what?" Galvan said. "It's just, it's not worth it in this life. It's just not. He doesn't deserve this. He doesn't deserve to die. He's got two kids. One is 1 years old, and the other one is a couple months old. He had a big life ahead of him."

Alderman Lamont Robinson said he made a request to the Chicago Park District Thursday asking the city to close 31st Street Beach at 9 instead of 11 p.m., at least until the city can get more security in the area.

He said CPD told him they would only shut the area down on a case-by-case basis.

But he said the level of violence at the beach is completely unacceptable.

He said it's time to do something, and make changes to an area that's clearly become a major problem.

"Closing the beach down at 9 p.m., I believe, will allow this beach to be safe. It will allow, I believe, for other incidents not to happen. But, we have to make sure that if we close the beach at 9 p.m. there's no loitering on the beach and there's no loitering in the parking lot, as well. And we have to make sure that Chicago Police Department, as well as the Chicago Park District, enforces that," Robinson said.

The park district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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