A vehicle pulled up to a crowd on the South Side just before midnight Friday, and two people inside began firing, according to a Chicago police news release. The SUV drove away, leaving two men in critical condition — one with a gunshot wound to the thigh — among the 12 people struck.
Police said the group comprised eight men and four women, ages 17 to 47. They were transported to four hospitals. One man with unknown injuries refused medical treatment.
Officers initially responded to a call of one person shot and found a woman with two gunshot wounds to her back and a man with four graze wounds to his back. Both were listed in fair condition, police said.
Detectives are investigating; no further information was immediately available.
Across the city, at least 21 people have been shot since Friday evening, with four fatalities, police said.
The mass shooting came on Juneteenth, the federal holiday that marks the end of slavery in the United States. Earlier Friday, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama welcomed the first visitors to the Obama Presidential Center, also located on the South Side.
Pastor Donovan Price, a local advocate for gun crime victims, told CBS News that seeing a mass shooting on the holiday was a tragedy. “It should be celebrating,” he said. “Fireworks should not turn into gunshots.”