Fourteen people were injured in a shooting at a Chicago funeral home Tuesday as the city faltered from a recent increase in gun violence, authorities said.
One person was detained and the conditions of the victims were not immediately known, Chicago Police Superintendent Eric Carter told reporters Tuesday night.
Carter said the shooting, in the city’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, occurred after a high-speed black car opened fire on funeral attendees Tuesday night. People at the funeral returned fire before the car pulled away and crashed, Carter said. People in the car then fled in different directions.
Carter did not say who the funeral was for, and the reason was unclear.
A neighbor, Arnita Gerder, told NBC Chicago that she saw “bodies lying everywhere.”
“He shot everywhere, everywhere,” he said. “We thought it was a war here.”
The shooting occurred amid a spike in gun violence that has affected minority communities already fighting the coronavirus pandemic. At least 70 people were shot in the city over the weekend, and another 25 people were shot dead Monday, according to NBC Chicago.
Tensions between authorities and protesters also increased after they accused each other of violence in an effort to tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus on Friday night.
President Donald Trump injected himself into the fray apparently threatening to send federal agents to Chicago and other cities where he said “local polls are fine with 50 days of anarchy.”
“Under no circumstances will I allow Donald Trump’s troops to come to Chicago and terrorize our residents,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded Tuesday.
In the midst of weeks of sometimes heated protests in Portland, Oregon, the mayor of that city said there appeared to be “dozens, if not hundreds” of federal troops in response to protesters. The video showed federal agents who were not clearly identified using non-lethal weapons and transporting them to unmarked trucks.
“What they are doing is, they are escalating the situation,” said Mayor Ted Wheeler.
Trump said the administration was “trying to help Portland, not hurt him.”
