A man who was shot Sunday while attending a Little Village baby shower has died, marking the 20th homicide victim of the violent July 4th holiday weekend, officials said.
About 12:40 a.m. Sunday, Guillermo Ruiz Hernandez was at a home in the 2800 block of South Lawndale Avenue when several shots were fired and a car sped away, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Hernandez, 58, was found lying in the backyard of the home, suffering from a gunshot wound above his right eye, police said.
He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, initially in critical condition but Ruiz Hernandez, of the 3000 block of South Springfield Avenue, was pronounced dead at 1:41 p.m. Monday, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Video surveillance showed a gunman wearing a black and gray hooded windbreaker firing “several” rounds at a speeding sedan, according to a police report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
Shell casings were recovered near the corner of 28th Street and Lawndale Avenue, according to police.
Tuesday afternoon, no one answered the door of the vine-covered, brick two-story home where the shooting happened, but at least two dogs were heard inside barking.
A small backyard was surrounded by gray fencing and a second-story window appeared broken.
John Rivera, 76, who has lived a few houses away from the scene for more than 40 years, decried recent violence in the city while adding his block was “mostly quiet.”
“Every day you hear people getting killed and getting shot, it’s a damn shame” Rivera said. “You can’t even walk or sit in front of your house or go to a store.
The death of Ruiz Hernandez marked the 20th homicide of the extended Fourth of July weekend, in which more than 100 people were shot.
No one was in custody.
