6 shot while leaving funeral for slain rapper
By: Anna Spoerre and William LeeContact Reporter
CHICAGO, IL – The funeral had just ended for Vantrease “Dooski Tha Man” Criss, a local rapper gunned down earlier this month in an apparent drive-by.
People were leaving Bethlehem Star Missionary Baptist Church and getting into their cars when two bursts of gunfire erupted, at least 30 shots sprayed across the street in the 9200 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue around 12:20 p.m. Monday, according to police and witnesses.
“There were bullets flying everyplace down there,” said Bernie Jordan, 60, who had just gotten off a bus. “It scared me, man.”
Police and paramedics arrived at a chaotic scene, with shell casings strewn over two blocks. At least six people had been shot, one of them in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.
That person and three others were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center. The others included a 25-year-old man shot in the arm, a 27-year-old woman shot in the leg and lower body and a 23-year-old man shot in the leg.
A 23-year-old man was stabilized at Advocate Trinity Hospital, and an 18-year-old man was stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Jordan, 60, said he was on his way home from visiting his sister Monday morning and had just gotten off the bus between Cottage Grove Avenue and 92nd Street. He saw a man jump out of a black car holding a large gun with a “long, tall straight clip” attached. Two “boys with big-a– guns started shooting.”
Jordan said he heard two rounds of shots, one with about 15 shots, the other 30. He took off running and ducked behind a building, taking a long detour to get to his home a block away.
“This used to be a nice neighborhood,” said Jordan, who’s lived in the Burnside neighborhood for 30 years. “But now, shoot, they’re into a war over here.”
Last September, a gunman fired near the church while it celebrated its 25th anniversary. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg and hobbled inside for help. A man inside the church was grazed in the head.
The church is several blocks from Chatham Academy High School, where three teens were shot outside of the school last month. The teens — 16, 17 and 18 — were wounded in the 700 block of East 91st Street. Two of them rushed back into the school for help.
Monday’s shooting happened after the funeral for Criss, who was shot to death Oct. 9 in the Washington Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police. A witness told police that the shots may have come from a passing car.
Last September, a gunman fired near the church while it celebrated its 25th anniversary. A 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg and hobbled inside for help. A man inside the church was grazed in the head.
The church is several blocks from Chatham Academy High School, where three teens were shot outside of the school last month. The teens — 16, 17 and 18 — were wounded in the 700 block of East 91st Street. Two of them rushed back into the school for help.
Monday’s shooting happened after the funeral for Criss, who was shot to death Oct. 9 in the Washington Park neighborhood, according to Chicago police. A witness told police that the shots may have come from a passing car.
No one is in custody for that shooting or for Monday’s attack.
Copyright © 2019, Chicago Tribune