By SAM CHARLES and LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times
Six people were shot, one fatally, near the intersection of Lake and Central in Austin Friday afternoon. | Sam Charles/Sun-Times
Byron McKinney Jr. was killed and five other people were wounded in a shooting Friday afternoon near a store in the Austin neighborhood that the local alderman says has been known to harbor “illicit activity.”
At 1:38 p.m., a gray SUV pulled up and opened fire on a group in the 300 block of North Central Avenue, according to Chicago Police.
McKinney, 24, was hit multiple times in the torso and arm, and was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died at 2:13 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the neighborhood.
Also wounded were a 17-year-old boy shot in the left leg; a 20-year-old man shot in the right foot; and a 46-year-old man shot in the buttocks, police said. Two other men, ages 24 and 29, suffered gunshot wounds to the thigh. They were all listed in good condition at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.
The shooting at the busy intersection attracted dozens of onlookers, among them Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th).
The alderman, a former Chicago Police sergeant, said the shooting occurred just outside a store known to harbor illegal activities.
“We need resources,” Taliaferro said. “We need jobs available. We need educational opportunities available. Especially, we need a police presence.”
“Many of my constituents are in fear of their own safety,” he added. “Ultimately, we’ve got to reach the people that are shooting, and that we’re not doing.”
The crime scene took up the entire intersection of Corcoran and Central, and police blocked traffic on Central between Fulton and Lake.
A glass CTA bus shelter on the west side of Central had been shattered, and at least a dozen evidence markers were set in the street, identifying spent bullet casings.
Several people observed the scene from the platform of the Central Green Line station.
Paul Medlin, 68, was briefly chided by an officer as he stepped under the crime-scene tape trying to get to his nearby apartment. Medlin, a Vietnam veteran who has lived near the scene of the shooting for 12 years, said violence in the area is “just unreal.”
“Life don’t mean s— to these young boys,” said Medlin, who just finished a shift working as a cashier at a nearby liquor store.