3 shot in drive-by shooting outside Chicago church while leaving funeral
Three people were the victims of a drive-by shooting this weekend when they attended a funeral at a Baptist church in Chicago, Illinois, with all three men expected to survive their wounds.
The drive-by took place Saturday afternoon at Universal Community Missionary Baptist Church, located in the Roseland neighborhood of the city, according to ABC 7 Chicago.
One 20-year-old man was shot in the abdomen, leg and shoulder; a 37-year-old man was shot in the thigh; while a 25-year-old was shot in the back. All three were reported to be in “good condition.”
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According to authorities, while the funeral attendees were standing outside, an unknown person in a gray sedan drove by and opened fire, wounding three people.
"On a day when people should be coming together, should be growing and loving, and now there's a community in confusion and chaos," said Pastor Donovan Price, reported ABC 7.
The funeral was for Mike Nash, a community figure and anti-violence activist who had recently passed away from a heart attack, according to The Associated Press.
Chicago has garnered many headlines for its high gun violence and overall homicide rate, with the major city seeing a rise in firearms-related deaths in recent years.
According to numbers compiled by The Chicago Tribune, as of Sunday, there have been 361 confirmed homicides in the city, which did reflect a decline compared to July 2021.
“That’s 63 fewer people killed when compared with this same date in 2021,” reported The Tribune, noting that “Austin and South Shore lead all community areas with the most homicides so far in 2022 — 24.”
In November 2021, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office reported that the number of homicides in the county had passed 1,000 by the end of Thanksgiving.
Of the 1,009 confirmed homicides, 777 of them occurred in Chicago. It was the county's most significant number of murders since 1994 when the office reported 1,141 homicides.
Pastor Isaac Paintsil, head of Christ’s Oasis Ministries, a multisite church with campuses in and near Chicago, told The Christian Post in an earlier interview that the rising violence was “horrendous” and “heartbreaking.”
“At a certain point, how can mothers be grieving and families be grieving, fathers be grieving week after week after week after week?" Paintsil inquired at the time. "This is the real challenge that we are having, and the emotional toll on us is just unbelievable."
