2 fatally wounded at 31st Street Beach overnight during exchange of gunfire; several in custody

Deanese Williams-Harris, Nell Salzman, Chicago Tribune
·2 min read
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Multiple people are in police custody after an exchange of gunfire broke out, fatally wounding two victims overnight near 31st Street Beach, Chicago police said.

Shortly after 3:15 a.m., police responded to a call of a person shot in the 3100 block of South DuSable Lake Shore Drive and found a man, 23, and a woman, 22, shot multiple times. Both were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

A preliminary investigation revealed the man was exchanging gunfire with multiple people who were on the scene. Several men have been placed into police custody. Charges were pending as detectives investigate.

The fatal attack is the second time in recent days where a fatal shooting has happened in the area of 31st Street Beach.

Shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday, officers discovered two women wounded in the 600 block of East 31st Street. A 22-year-old woman suffered three gunshot wounds to the chest, and was taken in critical condition to Insight Hospital where she was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.

A 20-year-old woman was wounded to the left thigh and taken to UChicago Medicine where she was listed in good condition. No one was in custody, and detectives are investigating.

On Friday morning, officers were still working the scene from the early morning shootout in the parking lot just a few hundred meters south of the beach. Caution tape and cars blocked the area where the shooting occurred in the early morning.

Nearby, the beach was peaceful. Several people laid out on the sand to bathe in the sun. Kids played in the water.

Joshua Barr, a 42-year-old sat at the end of the concrete pier looking at the flat water of Lake Michigan, his bike propped up against a pole. He said he rides down the path almost every morning from his home in Lakeview. He’d read about the shootings overnight.

But Barr said he doesn’t let crime deter him from living his life. He said he always bikes down in the early morning, and there are rarely people out.

“It’s kind of happening everywhere now,” he said. “I have little kids and there’s always a concern that something can happen.”