A tragic mass shooting on Chicago’s South Side on July 4 has claimed the lives of two women and an 8-year-old boy. Capri Edwards, 24, was killed in the Grand Crossing shooting heroically shielding children from the gunfire.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, aside from the 8-year-old boy who succumbed to his injuries, three other children — who are 5, 7, and 8 — remain in critical condition from the shooting. They are being treated at the Comer Children’s Hospital.
Police reported that neighbors witnessed a group of men knocking on the door of the 7100 block of South Woodlawn Avenue before 7 A.M. and soon after began firing shots at the residence.
Neekshia Strong, 45, was found dead at the scene, and her niece, Edwards, was taken to the University of Chicago Hospital before she died just soon after.
Edwards received her fatal gunshot wounds while shielding her 1-year-old child from the gunfire with her body. Thankfully, the 1-year-old is unharmed.
Two of the other children in critical condition, the 5- and 7-year-old, are Edwards’ sons, and the 8-year-old is the cousin of the two.
Don Jerome, Deputy Chief of the Chicago Police, claimed that the investigation suggests that the mass shooting seems to have “started over a personal dispute.”
All of the victims were shot inside the residence. Jerome said, “Two vehicles pulled up into the area. Multiple subjects exited those vehicles and fired at this residence. Multiple shell casings were recovered from both a rifle and a handgun at the scene.”
Strong’s son, Frank Mixon, was inside the home when the gunfire started. Home visiting his family from college, he was woken up by the sound of shooting.
Mixon recalled to Fox 32 Chicago, “I honestly can’t even tell you what I thought was going on. I just woke up, went upstairs and I just saw a massacre of everything. It was crazy.”
After the incident, he shared some touching words about his late mother: “My mom was such an amazing woman. No one ever showed me how to get in and work hard like her. Working day and night, taking care of kids that weren’t hers.”
“If my mom was here, she’d just tell me the same thing — take it on the chin and keep going. My mom was one of the most wonderful women you could ever meet in your life. Definitely the love of my life for sure.”
Although Chicago police have not arrested the shooters yet, Jerome assured the public that the suspect’s vehicles would soon be identified through the use of video surveillance footage.
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