Activists And Family Speak Out On Violence After 7 Shot In East Chatham
CHICAGO (CBS) – A mass shooting leaves a family in agony Monday night.
Two young brothers are dead and another five people are wounded. Now the hunt to find the killer is on.
"It was a lot of chaos," said neighbor, Sidney Grant.
Sidney Grant did not have the Christmas he envisioned. Neither did his neighbors.
"They were saying everybody was enjoying themselves, having a good time, and at the point of everybody leaving, that is when the incident occurred," Grant said.
Shots sprayed the front porch of a home in the 8600 block of Maryland, killing brother Roy and James Gill, on Christmas night. Bullets also hit five of their relatives, including activist Ja'Mal Green's friends Jazmin and Deonte Harris. WBBM's Michele Fiore reports.
"I had to visit her in the hospital at one in the morning, of her crying and crying and crying and hurt," Green said.
He joined community activists at a news conference across the street from the crime scene, calling for whoever knows who did this to step forward.
"If you have an assault riffle and you want to kill multiple people," Green said. "You deserve to rot in jail."
Green is also calling on Chicago police to increase their use of technology - with shot spotters and surveillance cameras.
Police said the violence was not an accident.
"These were deliberate and planned shootings by one gang against another," said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. "They were targeted knowing fully well that individuals would be at the homes of family and friends, celebrating the holiday."
Green, who often publicly criticizes police, said the circumstances should not matter.
"At the end of the day, we have to figure out how to use this to get people involved, to save other people," Green said.
Neighbors agree. Their new Christmas wish is that police do not need to return.
"I know it's tragic, but I stay in the neighborhood and I'm not fitting to run away," Grant said. "This shouldn't happen."
