Man shot dead in West Town

Police investigate the scene where a man was shot and killed Saturday night, in the 1300 block of West Huron Street, in the West Town neighborhood. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

A man was fatally shot late Saturday in the West Town neighborhood.

Officers responded about 11:40 p.m. to the 1300 block of West Huron Street and found 22-year-old Quantis Smith on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to his chest, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died.

A black SUV was seen traveling east from the scene, police said. No one was in custody.

“It saddens me that they took my son from me,” Smith’s mother wrote on his Facebook page early Sunday. “I want all y’all to be okay. I’m okay. Love you all.”

After the shooting, officers marked seven shell casings on the ground.

A resident standing near the crime scene said he remembered years ago when shootings were common in the neighborhood and a nearby intersection was contested gang territory.

The violence mellowed out over the last decade, according to the man who asked to remain unnamed. But that changed recently, he said. Just last Sunday, he woke up at 3 a.m. to the sound of about nine gunshots.

Smith lived in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side, the medical examiner’s office said.

Area Central detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.