Santana Davis, 26, said he has been a friend of one of the victims since they were 3. He said the father of another one of the victims is a pastor at a South Side church.Davis said the two women were girlfriends of two of the men, and that the three men lived together in the home where they were shot."The only thing I can see is they probably thought they had some money, they probably ran into the house and killed them," Davis said. "They weren’t gang-bangers, all they do is go to clubs and have fun." Jayson Alfred said one of the victims was his younger brother, who he said was a real estate broker and had two young children."It was probably a robbery or something, jealousy," Alfred said. "He didn’t have any enemies."Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) said her office had not received any complaints about activity at the home.Lyle, who lives three blocks away, said residents told her the people in the home had just recently moved in.Police believe the last homicide of this scope in Chicago came in 2003 when six people were killed in a warehouse. In February, five women were shot to death in a Lane Bryant clothing store in Tinley Park.Neighbors in Chatham on Wednesday gathered by the dozens behind yellow police tape on the block of aging brick bungalows. Opinions on the house’s residents varied, with some neighbors saying they regularly saw cars coming and going, and others claiming they’d seen and heard little from the people who lived there.Many said they were disgusted but not shocked by the afternoon shooting.Shante Bradford, 30, a machine operator who leaves for work at 4 a.m., said the neighborhood is so bad that he worries about getting robbed each morning when he goes to his car parked on the street."It’s really nothing. Death is nothing," said Bradford, who lives a half-block from the crime scene.Over the weekend, 36 people were shot and seven were killed across Chicago in what police said were primarily gang-related incidents, many in the Englewood and nearby Chicago Lawn police districts.On Monday night, a 28-year-old man was killed and four others were shot at a McDonald’s restaurant. Wednesday’s shooting occurred near the border of the Englewood-Gresham police districts, an area heavily populated with members of the Gangster Disciples street gang.
Michelle Lucas, 49, who has lived in Chatham all her life, blames the neighborhood problems on the influx of new residents who she said poured in from the Robert Taylor, Stateway Gardens and Ida B. Wells housing projects that have either come down or will soon be shuttered.
"It’s just getting bad these last two, three years," Lucas said. "We don’t have a say-so over who moves into the community."
© 2008, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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Beetle outbreak a menace to air
Gun violence that swept through swaths of Chicago over the weekend pressed into mid-week Wednesday when five people were shot to death in a South Side home.
The afternoon crackle of gunfire in the Chatham neighborhood boosted a grim statistic: In fewer than seven days, the city has seen more than 40 shootings - and 13 deaths.
Many of the recent shootings have been attributed to ongoing gang feuds on the South and West Sides, but Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond said Wednesday’s quintuple homicide may have been committed by "some known affiliate of the victims."
Chief of Detectives Thomas Byrne said the house in Chatham appeared to be ransacked, but he was not sure whether anything had been taken. He said the victims, all believed to be in their 20s, were found shot on the first floor of the two-story home.
Calumet Area Deputy Chief Eugene Williams said: "This does not appear to be a random act."
A police source said investigators are looking into whether there was illegal activity going on in the home.
A woman apparently discovered the bodies of three men and two women and called 911, and police arrived at the home about 3:45 p.m.
A spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office said all five people suffered gunshot wounds. Autopsies are scheduled for Thursday.
Officials insisted they had no suspects in custody but were "talking to a number of people."
Bernard Scales said he is the grandfather of one of the victims and was notified by police that his grandson, Tony Scales, 25, was killed in the shooting.
Bernard Scales said his grandson was at a barbecue inside the house Wednesday.
"I knew all of them kids," Scales said. "They were all raised up together around here. They were all really good kids. They weren’t gang-bangers, and they weren’t into drug-dealing. I bet somebody over there thought they were into something, but they weren’t."
Scales said the bodies were found by his other grandson, Terry Scales, 24. Family members said police were questioning Terry Scales late Wednesday.
The family said Tony Scales had been working as a telemarketer and was recently hired at a Ford dealership.
Others who believe their friends and relatives were among the victims gathered at the site and at nearby homes. The Tribune is not identifying the other people named by relatives because the identities of the victims were not verified by authorities.
Cheryl Flowers said she is the mother of a 22-year-old woman who had been living in the home where the victims were discovered. She said her daughter worked as a dancer at a nightclub and had been living in the home for about a year with one of the men.
