An 8-year-old boy has died following Thursday’s mass shooting in the Grand Crossing neighborhood that left two women dead and two other children critically injured, authorities said.
The boy became the third fatality from an early-morning attack in the 7100 block of South Woodlawn Avenue, which killed two women and left two other boys, aged 5 and 8, in critical condition.
Chicago police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office on Thursday evening both acknowledged the boy’s death. “We are deeply saddened by the tragic shooting in Grand Crossing today, where 2 mothers lost their lives protecting their children and an 8-year-old child was also lost,” the state’s attorney’s office said on social media. “Our hearts go out to the families and the entire community.”
The Cook County medical examiner’s office did not confirm the boy’s identity Friday afternoon. An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday.
The deaths of Capri Edwards, 24, and Nakeeshia Strong, 45, were both ruled homicides due to multiple gunshot wounds, according to autopsies conducted Friday.
Police said Thursday that several people had gotten out of two cars and opened fire on the home around 6:15 that morning, fatally wounding Strong and Edwards and sending the three boys to Comer Children’s Hospital.
A preliminary investigation indicated that an interpersonal disagreement led to the shooting. Officers found both handgun and rifle casings at the site, police Deputy Chief Don Jerome said.
Strong was pronounced dead at the home and Edwards died shortly afterward at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
Relatives of the survivors weren’t available for comment Friday afternoon. On Thursday, Strong’s son Michael Lemon described his mother as a “loving, fun person” and said Edwards had been staying with Strong, her aunt.
Lemon said he had at first mistaken the gunfire for firecrackers before he found his mom, siblings and cousins shot and bullet holes in the front windows.
The gunmen remained at large as of Friday afternoon, police said.
