Man, 82, dies weeks after being wounded in West Chatham triple shooting

An 82-year-old man died Sunday evening, more than two weeks after he and two other people were wounded in a West Chatham neighborhood shooting on the South Side.

About 10:40 p.m. July 12, Homer Donehue and two other people were outside in the 8200 block of South Wentworth when someone wearing a ski mask walked up and opened fire, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Homer Donehue suffered a gunshot wound to the back and was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, authorities said.

A 22-year-old woman was also shot in her shoulder, while a 31-year-old man was struck in the ankle, police said. Their conditions were stabilized at the same hospital.

Witnesses said the shooter appeared to have been shooting at the younger victims, and that Donehue was walking a short distance ahead of them, police said.

Homer Donehue was pronounced dead at Christ at 6:47 p.m. Sunday, the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the same block as the shooting.

His daughter, Rhonda Donehue, told the Sun-Times that her father’s death was “horrific.” She noted that a bullet had severed his spinal cord, leaving him brain dead.

“My father passed on July 12,” she said. “He never came back.”

Community activist Andrew Holmes and Homer Donehue’s family attended a CPD roll call Monday evening near the shooting scene.

During a phone interview, Holmes called Donehue’s death “another senseless killing” and urged members of the community to “start speaking up.”

“We have to police our own community and work with the police at the same time,” Holmes said.

Area Central detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.

Homer Donehue’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to cover his funeral and medical expenses. Anyone with information about his killing should call (800) 883-5587.