TRI-TAYLOR — Dozens of shots rang out in a KFC parking lot in the Tri-Taylor neighborhood Thursday afternoon, injuring a 24-year-old man and and a 26-year-old man.
The victims were in a car in the KFC parking lot in the 1100 block of South Western Avenue at 1:04 p.m. Thursday when two men walked up and opened fire, said Officer Kevin Quaid, a Chicago Police spokesman.
The shooters then drove off, Quaid said.
The 24-year-old was shot in his collarbone and thigh, and the 26-year-old was shot in his stomach and forearm, said Quaid, citing preliminary information.
Police did not have their conditions but said the men were taken to Stroger Hospital.
Bullet holes riddled the car. Witnesses said two bullets pierced the side window of the restaurant, but no one inside was hurt.
Yolanda Starks had stopped by for lunch with her son on her way to a dentist appointment, she said, when the shots jolted the handful of customers inside from their meals. A moment later, she said, a young man ran into the restaurant clutching a wound on his left side.
"He was going in and out of consciousness, so we just told him to keep breathing, kept telling him he'd be OK," Starks said. "The ambulance got here quick, and it wasn't until then that we realized there was another young man shot who was still outside."
Starks didn't see the shooting unfold, she said, but other witnesses told her the two men had just gone through the drive-thru when someone ran up behind them and shot at their car.
Twenty-nine evidence markers dotted the KFC parking lot, most marking shell casings, with at least three more inside the car.
A KFC employee who asked not to be named said he only heard three shots, despite the constellation of shell casings lying on the ground outside.
"This is gonna kill us!" said the employee. "No one is gonna want to come around here anymore."
Groups of students stopped to spectate on their way home from North Lawndale College Prep High School, 1313 S. Sacramento Ave., as officers tried to shepherd them away.
"This is crazy, I was gonna stop by here to pick up something to eat," said Carnell Hunter, 18, as he and his friends watched officers pick up evidence markers from behind yellow crime scene tape. "I'm just scared for them — scared for the people who were working in there."
"There's too much violence going on around this city," added Leondre Vortes, 16. "It's just f----- up."
"I don't feel safe nowhere in the city of Chicago no more," Isaiah Baggett, 17, chimed in.
Police said both shooting victims are documented gang members.
No arrests have been made, Quaid said.
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