US: 1 killed, 6 injured in Chicago when gunfire erupts amid remembrance for man killed in car crash

A 25-year-old woman was fatally shot and six other people were wounded early on Sunday when gunfire erupted in Chicago during a remembrance for a man who died in a car crash, police said.

A large group of people had gathered about 1am to mark four years since a man's fatal crash when there was an altercation and shots rang out, said Deputy Chief Adnardo Gutierrez of the Chicago Police Department, WLS-TV reported.

Seven people were wounded and one of them, a 25-year-old woman, was pronounced dead at a hospital, he said. The six other shooting victims were hospitalised, one in critical condition.

“They were out there celebrating and then something happened and a verbal altercation occurred and somebody began shooting, or multiple people began shooting,” Gutierrez said at a Sunday briefing.

He said it's still under investigation how many people opened fire, but he said the gunshots were fired by a person or persons who were taking part in the remembrance.

Gutierrez said a witness told officers an altercation occurred before the shooting, which happened as the group was in a street in the Austin neighbourhood on Chicago's West Side.

Among the six other victims, a 29-year-old man was hospitalised in critical condition with a chest wound. The five others, a 17-year-old girl, a 28-year-old woman, and three men aged 27, 28 and 29, were hospitalised in good condition, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Police detectives were investigating the shooting, and no one was in custody as of midmorning Sunday.

Gutierrez said detectives were still working to find and interview witnesses. He urged anyone with information about the shooting to contact police and pass that information along.

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