Thirteen people were wounded after a late-night attack in a southwest Chicago park on Thursday. An assault-style weapon was used to shower the small crowd with bullets. The Chicago police superintendant said it was “a miracle” that no one was killed.
The attack took place around 10:00pm, in Cornell Square Park, and the area was packed with people watching a basketball game. There were apparently several people involved in the attack, and it is believed to be gang-related. “Even if it’s gang-related, even if we have the most hardened criminals who becomes the victim of gun violence, that individual is the father, brother, sister sometimes parent of somebody else,” Superintendent Garry McCarthy said. “So murder is not a one-victim crime.”
Superintendent McCarthy also said that the 7.62 mm rifle that the attacker used was meant for a “battlefield, not on the street or a corner or a park.” He added: “It’s a miracle in this instance that there have been no fatalities based upon the lethality of the weapon used at the scene.”
A 3-year-old boy and two teenagers, 15 and 17, were among the victims shot. The three-year old is in critical condition and the teenagers are reportedly in stable condition.
