2 killed, 4 wounded in East Garfield Park shooting

A burst of daytime gunfire on the city’s West Side claimed two lives Sunday, left four others wounded and left frustrated residents shaking their heads.

At 4:33 p.m., the men were standing in a group in the 3500 block of West Van Buren when a white, four-door car pulled up and multiple people got out and started shooting, according to Chicago Police. The vehicle may have been a Chevrolet Impala, police said.

Two of the men, 23-year-old Deonta Turner and 27-year-old Lemont Davis, were shot in the chest and were taken to Stroger Hospital, where they were pronounced dead just after 5 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Autopsies Monday found Turner, of the Uptown neighborhood, died of a gunshot wound to the back; and Davis, of Oak Park, died of multiple gunshot wounds. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

An 18-year-old man was shot in the chest; a 23-year-old man was shot in the back; and a 24-year-old man was shot in the chest, back and leg, police said. They were all taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital.

The sixth man, 26, suffered a gunshot wound to the right leg and was taken in good condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

Residents say the block, just off the Eisenhower Expressway, has become a hotspot for drug trafficking. Dealers have had success hiding their drugs in the area whenever cops are called, the residents said.

A group of about 30 people was seen on the block in the hours before the shooting, with some running up and down the street. The residents said it looked like an argument had broken out.

The shooting happened in the Chicago Police Department’s Beat No. 1133, the most violent beat in the city last year. It saw 61 shootings in 2016 — 16 of them fatal — according to records kept by the Chicago Sun-Times. Numbers there had fallen dramatically in the first three months of 2017, with only two nonfatal shootings and not one homicide on the beat. Until Sunday.

Residents of the block, just off the Eisenhower Expressway, say drug traffickers who have taken over the area have so far managed to thwart police called to investigate suspicious activity.

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th) said he confronted people on the block just Saturday — non-residents who “just show up over here as if they’re coming to work” to sell marijuana. He complained about a lack of economic opportunity and that police are not being allowed to properly do their job.

The fatal shooting in East Garfield Park happened about four hours after a shooting in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood left one man dead and another wounded. That shooting was in the 8200 block of South Ada at 12:30 p.m. A 19-year-old man was shot once in the back and a 20-year-old man was shot twice in the back. Both were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The older man was pronounced dead, police said. The younger man was listed in critical condition.

Contributing: Sam Charles, Jordan Owen