2 dead, 3 wounded in Englewood mass shooting; witness blames ‘lost hope’

Two people were killed and three others wounded in a mass shooting in Englewood on Thursday, fire officials said.

Jabez Davis, 20, and Jarrell Harmon, 26, were taken to University of Chicago Medical Center in traumatic arrest after the shooting near West 61st Street and South Union Avenue. They were dead at the hospital, fire officials and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

A 17-year-old boy and a 26-year-old woman were taken to Stroger Hospital, where the boy was in good condition after being shot in an arm, Chicago police Deputy Chief Matt Cline told reporters at a news conference. The woman was described as stable, according to the Chicago Fire Department.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

A 21-year-old man was taken to St. Bernard Hospital in good condition with a gunshot wound to the arm, Cline said.

A group of people, some related, who lived in the neighborhood were outdoors, “enjoying the nice weather,” when a car approached and two people got out and started shooting toward the group before fleeing, Cline said.

Some children were present, but none was hurt.

Shortly after the shooting, red police tape blocked off about half the block as dozens of shell casings littered the scene, many of them on the lawn of a home at 61st and Union.

A woman who lives on the block said she heard “a lot” of shots, too many to count. She stayed inside her home, she said, and poked her head out only after the police arrived.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere / Sun-Times

The woman, who declined to give her name, saying she was worried about her safety, said she’s lived in the area since 1978, that the neighborhood was “working class” then.

“It seems the new generation doesn’t care about the future,” she said. “They lost hope.”