Dunbar High School Drive-by Shooting in Chicago Leaves Five Wounded

School Shooting Continuance of Violence that Saw 509 Murdered in 2008

Chicago police say they have some positive leads into the drive-by shooting that left five males wounded outside Dunbar High School on the city's South Side. A basketball game had entered double overtime and people were beginning to filter out of the school at around 8 p.m. Friday evening (January 9) when the shooting started. Police believe the shooting was gang related.

According to WGN Breaking News, officials would not describe the vehicle the shooters were in, only commenting that shots were fired from a moving vehicle into the crowd outside Dunbar High School. One eyewitness, 15-yea-old Shaneisha Turman, said that a silver truck pulled up to a school bus stop and those inside mimicked shooting at the crowd. Then they actually began shooting into the crowd. "It was a lot of people shouting and running."It was a lot of people shouting and running."

Three of the more critically wounded victims were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, University of Chicago Comer's Children's Hospital and Stroger Hospital. Two other victims with less serious wounds were taken to Mercy Hospital.

Police are looking at videotape acquired from the school's surveillance system to aid in the investigation.

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis stated that there were over 200 officers involved in the investigation.

Earlier in the day, two 18-year-old men were wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Northwest Side of Chicago.

In an incident that Chicago police are also saying is believed to be gang-related, a red SUV carrying five men pulled up alongside of the victims' vehicle and opened fire. One man was shot in the shoulder. The other received a grazing wound to the neck.

The police believe the shooting gang-related because gang signs were flashed.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago concluded the year 2008 with 509 murders. That is nearly double the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq in 2008 (314). The differences, of course, are obvious. Chicago is an American city. Iraq is a war zone where Americans are targeted on a daily basis.