6 dead, 2 wounded in Monday shootings

SHARE 6 dead, 2 wounded in Monday shootings
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First responders march behind the ambulance as the body of fallen officer Samuel Jimenez arrives at the Cook County Medical Examiners Office. Jimenez was shot and killed in a shooting at Mercy Hospital earlier on Monday. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Shootings across Chicago Monday left six people dead and two others wounded.

They included one of the city’s deadliest shootings involving an officer, another police shooting involving a fugitive in Bronzeville, and three civilian shootings that left two dead and two wounded.

A shooting at Mercy Hospital left four people dead, including a Chicago police officer and the gunman, in the South Side Bronzeville neighborhood.

A doctor and a pharmacy resident were also killed in the shooting, which began in the hospital’s parking lot about 3:30 p.m. in the 2500 block of South Michigan Avenue when the shooter showed a gun while he argued with a woman and then shot her multiple times, Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said at a Monday night press conference.

Chicago Police work the scene where a gunman opened fire at Mercy Hospital. AP Photo/David Banks

Chicago Police work the scene where a gunman opened fire at Mercy Hospital. AP Photo/David Banks

The shooter had a prior relationship with the woman, who worked at the hospital, Johnson said.

Responding officers then arrived at the scene and were fired upon by the shooter before they left their squad cars. The shooter ran into the hospital and was pursued by police. During an exchange of gunfire, Officer Samuel Jimenez and another woman who worked at the hospital were fatally wounded, Johnson said.

Jimenez was rushed to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

The doctor was identified as Tamara O’Neal, an emergency medicine physician. She grew up in Portage, Ind.

The other employee was identified as Dayna Less, a 25-year-old, first-year pharmacy resident who was a recent graduate of Purdue University.

The shooter was identified as Juan Lopez, 32, of the North Park neighborhood, according to a police source and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Additional information about Lopez was not released.

Lopez was found dead after suffering a gunshot wound. It was not immediately clear if he was shot by police or if he turned his gun on himself. He died at the scene.

First responders arrive to Mercy Hospital where multiple people were shot, including a Chicago police officer, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, in Chicago. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

First responders arrive to Mercy Hospital where multiple people were shot, including a Chicago police officer, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, in Chicago. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“The [Fraternal Order of Police] asks that everyone keep the young officer who gave his life today to protect the public in their thoughts and prayers,” said Martin Preib, spokesman for the union that represents the city’s officers.

“This tears at the soul of our city,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. “It is the face and the consequence of evil.”

In other shootings Monday, a man was shot and killed in the Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Vallon K. Stefferson, 27, was walking down the 13300 block of South Langley Avenue just before 10 p.m. when he was approached by three people who fired shots, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Stefferson was struck in his head and chest, and was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where he died, authorities said. No one was in custody.

Hours earlier, a 21-year-old man was shot dead in the West Side Austin neighborhood, and another was wounded.

Two 21-year-old men were on a sidewalk in the 1000 block of North Leamington at 6:43 p.m. when shots were fired, police said.

One man was shot in the head and taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died, police said.

The other man was shot twice in his leg, and took himself to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, according to police. He was in good condition.

In nonfatal shootings, a fugitive was wounded in an officer-involved shooting after stabbing a sheriff’s deputy in the same neighborhood as the Mercy Hospital shooting.

About 6:35 p.m., the deputies responded to the intersection of 41st Street and Michigan Avenue to arrest Joveaun Brewer, a 22-year-old Chicago man who hadn’t checked in with the Cook County sheriff’s office’s electronic monitoring program since Nov. 7, according to Sophia Ansari, a spokeswoman for the agency, and Chicago police.

As they tried to take Brewer into custody on an escape charge, he stabbed one of the deputies in the head, authorities said. The deputy was expected to survive after being rushed to University of Chicago Medical Center.

Another deputy then shot and tasered Brewer, authorities said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital with a gunshot wound to his left arm that wasn’t thought to be life-threatening.

The first shooting Monday wounded a teenage boy on the West Side.

At 11:57 a.m., the 15-year-old was riding in a vehicle in the 100 block of North Pulaski when a blue sedan pulled up and someone inside started shooting, according to police.

He was shot three times and taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.

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