Two Shot Along Bud Billiken Parade As Candidate Greets Voters Nearby
(CBS) -- Two young men were shot along the Bud Billiken Parade route Saturday, sending spectators scattering as a candidate for Illinois governor shook hands yards away.
The incident happened around 12:37 p.m. in the 4200 block of South King Drive, according to Chicago Police News Affairs.
One of the injured men, an 18-year-old shot in the left arm, was taken in serious condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, authorities said. A 17-year-old male was shot in the right hand and suffered a graze wound to the buttocks. He was taken to Stroger Hospital in stable condition, police said.
CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot spoke to witnesses who say some kind of confrontation preceded the gunfire. A large group of men surrounded at least one of the victims and exchanged words when a member of the group pulled out a gun and started shooting, they told CBS 2.
Suspects fled north on King Drive, police said.
Rauner Campaigning As Gunfire Erupts
The shooting occurred as Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner was shaking the hands of potential voters along the parade route in that general area, campaign spokesman Mike Schrimpf confirms.
Schrimpf says he and others at the scene noticed spectators ducking and fleeing and police activity. He said he did not hear any gunfire with all of the parade-related noise.
Schrimpf says he doesn't think Rauner was aware the shooting had happened, as he and his supporters and campaign bus passed by.
The parade route began on King Drive and went south from Oakwood Boulevard to 51st Street, and then along Ellsworth Drive to Garfield Boulevard.
Bud Billiken, billed as the largest African-American parade in the U.S., marked its 85th year. It is meant to get children excited about the coming school year.
"It's unfortunate that a celebration of education has a mark on it that now is going to be about a shooting," Schrimpf, the Rauner spokesman, says.
