Man dies days after double shooting in South Chicago, becoming city’s first 2021 homicide victim

A man died Sunday after he and a woman were both critically wounded in a shooting on New Year’s Day inside a South Chicago home, marking the city’s first homicide of the year.

He was identified as 51-year-old Victor Salamanca by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

About 12:10 a.m. Friday, Salamanca and the woman, also 51, were sitting in the living room of a home in the 8700 block of South Buffalo Avenue when someone fired shots from outside, Chicago police said.

Salamanca was shot in the head and the woman suffered a graze wound to the head, police said. Both were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition.

Salamanca died about 9:30 p.m. Sunday, the medical examiner’s office said. An autopsy ruled his death a homicide.

The pair were among 30 people shot in Chicago over the holiday weekend.

No one is in custody as Area Two detectives investigate.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.