Ten people, including two who died, have now been listed as victims in a shooting Tuesday night in Washington Park that erupted after spectators gathered for a softball game and party, Chicago police said.
The 10th person, a man, showed up at Elmhurst Hospital on Wednesday for treatment of a gunshot wound he’d suffered Tuesday night in the attack, according to a police report.
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Just before 8 p.m. Tuesday, two groups of people were at the park for the game and party when a fight broke out and shots were fired, according to the report and Deputy Chief Fred Melean of the Chicago Police Department, who spoke at a news conference at the park just across the street from the University of Chicago Medical Center’s emergency room on the night of the attack.
As people fled the park, “at least three more shootings” took place, according to the report.
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Paramedics responded to East 51st Street and South Champlain Avenue and took five men and a woman to UChicago Medicine, according to police. Others arrived at hospitals on their own.
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Police cameras in the area did not capture images, and interviews with survivors did not trigger any leads, the report said.
“We believe people have information on who the shooters were, and we need the public’s help,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference Wednesday morning.
More than 40 shell casings but no weapons were recovered, Deenihan said.
Detectives believe “it’s likely a gang-related conflict,” but there still isn’t enough information to sort out what group the victims belong to and who among them were shooting. There was also not a lot of video evidence of the shooting, Deenihan said.
One of the two men who died has been identified as Lionel Coward, 43, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He suffered a gunshot wound to the back of the head and was pronounced dead at 8:42 p.m. at UChicago Medicine.
The other man who died — a 20-year-old — was initially taken to UChicago Medicine in critical condition. According to the medical examiner’s office and police, he was pronounced dead at 9:55 p.m. after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his body. His name was not immediately available.
