3 days ago
South Side church searches for answers after 7 teens were shot at a gathering nearby
CHICAGO () — During Sunday service at St. Sabina Church, Father Michael Pfleger and parishioners did something a little bit different.
They stepped outside of the church to pass out flyers hoping that someone will come forward with information about a shooting near the church early Saturday morning.
The flyers announced a $10,000 reward leading to an arrest in connection with shooting that injured seven young men ages 17, 18 and 19.
'What makes us Christians is not what we do in there, it's what we do out here,' Father Pfleger said.
According to police, the gunfire erupted just before 2 a.m. in the 1200 block of West 78th Street in Auburn Gresham, near St. Sabina Church.
PREVIOUS: 7 injured after gunman opens fire on group gathered outside South Side Church
Neighbors told WGN-TV it all started as a small after-prom gathering. Over 150 people showed up as word spread on social media.
Officers on patrol in the area were initially called to the scene to disperse a large gathering of people in the area, but after they arrived, an unknown dark-in-color SUV drove by and someone inside opened fire on the crowd.
'While they were dispersing people, police cars with their blue lights going, a car drives down 78th Street with four people in it, shooting out of all four windows,' Father Pfleger said. 'And then some people in the crowd began shooting back.'
Father Pfleger says the victims don't live near the church.
He says five of the seven come from the south suburbs and two are from neighborhoods outside of Auburn-Gresham.
From what's he's been told, the victims are in stable condition, including the one with the most serious injuries.
'One of the persons who was shot very seriously, the police did not even wait for the ambulance. They picked the person up and took them to the hospital themselves,' Father Pfleger said.
Those who participated in going door to door on Sunday eagerly seek justice.
'Someone knows something,' Tiffani Ricks-Cooper, a St. Sabina Parishioner, said. 'If you do know something, say something. If this was your child, you would want someone to speak up, so do the right thing.'
Father Pfleger says stronger parenting and teens making better choices, including what they post on social media, along with getting guns off the streets can help prevent tragedies like Saturday's mass shooting from happening.
Despite the heaviness felt this weekend he says he's grateful, knowing it could have been worse.
'The fact that there was not more than seven shot is a miracle and the fact that nobody died is nothing but God,' Father Pfleger said.
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