By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
A woman sits on the curb in the 1300 block of West Hastings, where gunfire rang out during a birthday party, leaving a 43-year-old man dead and a 40-year-old woman injured early Sunday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Everick Lavon Coleman was killed when gunfire erupted at his own birthday party early Sunday in the University Village neighborhood on the Near West Side.
A woman was also injured by gunfire at the party, which was attended by more than 100 people.
About 2:20 a.m., the 43-year-old Coleman, known to friends as "Blue," and the 40-year-old woman were outside at the party in the 1300 block of West Hastings when someone opened fire, according to authorities.
Coleman, of the 2400 block of West Madison, was shot in the head and chest, and was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:42 a.m., according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Chicago Police investigate in the 1300 block of West Hastings, where gunfire rang out during a birthday party, leaving a 43-year-old man dead and a 40-year-old woman injured early Sunday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and back, and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where her condition was stabilized.
More than a dozen police officers, some armed with assault rifles, guarded the scene early Sunday on Hastings, which was partially blocked off between Throop and Loomis.
A large pool of blood could be seen in the street, surrounded by bottles, cups and other remnants of the party that took place before shots rang out.
Dana Fitch, 33, said she had just stepped away from the party and into a friend’s house on the block when she heard more than 20 shots ring out. When she looked outside, people were running and screaming.
“Everybody was just mingling and talking. It was fun. I haven’t had a good time like this in so long,” said Fitch, who grew up in the neighborhood, but now lives in Aurora. “It was just too good.”
She said she had never seen anything like this before.
“This was a random shooting—they just fired into the crowd—and they took this innocent man’s life,” she said.
As Fitch stood outside the crime scene, she looked at the ColemaN’s Facebook page and realized that Sunday was his birthday.
“That’s messed up,” she said as she looked through the birthday wishes posted to his Facebook wall.
“He’s got kids. Don’t nobody deserve that.”