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Great-Grandma, 81, Shot Moments After Daughter's Wake

(STMW) -- An 81-year-old great-grandmother was shot Friday night just minutes after viewing the body of her recently deceased daughter at a South Side funeral home, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Iola Burress survived being shot four times but was due to undergo surgery Saturday, relatives said. Her 34-year-old grandson, Sylvester Burress, was also shot in the drive-by shooting in Auburn-Gresham.

"It's very hard right now because we're trying to bury her daughter and assist her and then this happens today during the wake," said Yolanda McBride, Burress's granddaughter. McBride's mother, Laverne Burress, 60, is the daughter the 81-year-old was mourning.

Chicago Police said that Iola Burress and her grandson were standing outside in the 7800 block of South Carpenter when they were shot by someone who was in a passing white SUV.

The grandmother, who suffers from dementia, was shot in the right wrist and abdomen, while her grandson was shot shot in the hip, police said. They were both taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where their conditions were described as stable.

The elder Burress has to have surgery, which worries the family because Laverne Burress, who died last Saturday, didn't make it out of heart surgery. She was Iola Burress' youngest daughter.

"It makes you very nervous that she has to go into surgery at this time," said McBride, 38, a social worker.

McBride said she doesn't know why gunmen shot at her family, but thinks it might have been a case of mistaken identity.

"I'm disappointed … the male population, that they feel you can just shoot … my grandmother's life was put at risk," she said. "We're just praying that she pulls through."

And Iola Burress will miss her daughter's funeral Saturday because she will be in the hospital.

McBride said, "My grandmother will not be able to put her daughter to rest."

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2015. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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