Police: 2 dead, 2 wounded in Roseland shooting

CHICAGO (SUN TIMES MEDIA WIRE) - Two men were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting early Wednesday in the Far South Side Roseland neighborhood, police said.

They were standing on the sidewalk at 1:17 a.m. in front of a house in the 11000 block of South Eberhart when several males in a black SUV fired at them, according to Chicago Police.

Two of the men, whose ages were not immediately known, were dead at the scene, police said. One had been shot in the chest while the other was shot in the back. The Cook County medical examiner’s office has not released details about the fatalities.

A 29-year-old man who was shot in the right wrist was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, while a 37-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the right arm was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. Both of their conditions were stabilized.

Ywain Fields was sitting in his vehicle on 110th Street, talking on the phone with his girlfriend, when at least 15 shots rang out.

“It’s Fourth of July, but these didn’t sound like firecrackers,” Fields, 55, a DJ with WVON, said from outside the crime scene early Wednesday. He said his girlfriend yelled at him to go home, but that he felt safe staying in the area after police and paramedics arrived.

Fields said he’s lived in the neighborhood for nearly 50 years and hears gunshots regularly.

“It’s becoming so normal in the black community. This happens so often, so much,” he said. “I’m trying my best not to become complacent, I’m trying my best but it’s so rampant. It’s so normal.”

Fields added that he has five grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 4. He said he doesn’t “worry too much” about gun violence affecting his family, as they live with their parents in west suburban Aurora and south suburban Blue Island.

“This is a Chicago problem, man,” he said. “It’s a Chicago problem, and I don’t know how we’re going to stop it.”