A family gathering ended in gunfire Friday night when two teenage boys were shot outside a dying West Side matriarch’s home.
“We’re basically sitting there, waiting for her last breath,” Dominique, 31, said of her grandmother. After a series of health problems and hospital stays, Dominique’s grandmother had been sent home under the care of a hospice nurse.
“We still appreciate having time with her,” said Dominique, who asked to be known by her first name. “They had to go out and ruin it.”
Dominique was outside in the unseasonably warm weather with the rest of her family in the 5100 block of West Concord Place when they noticed a group of kids getting closer to the house.
She knew they might be trouble, Dominique said — a set of Four Corner Hustlers is known to hang out on the block.
“They keep finding their way back,” she said. “We begged them to move away from us. Just move down the street.”
Then, about 11:25 p.m., Dominique heard at least 15 gunshots.
A 16-year-old boy who had been shot came up through the gangway and fell onto her, she said.
“There’s blood on my grandmother’s steps,” she said.
She began to rub the boy’s back.
“He was saying it was hot, ‘don’t touch me there,’” she said.
That was a good sign, a nearby police officer told her: “As long as he can feel it, it’s OK.”
A 13-year-old, was found shot across the street. He had been shot in the back and was listed in critical condition.
Dominique stood behind her grandmother’s house, shaking with anger.
“(The shooters) don’t sit in front of their own houses!” she said. “How can you bring violence to somebody else’s crib? Go stand in front of your own mom’s house.”
Everyone in the neighborhood grew up with her grandmother, Dominique said. But that didn’t mean they were welcome now.
“Y’all big now. Y’all got problems. Stay away from here,” she said. “We’re not those girls who ride in cars and think it’s cute that you all kill each other.”
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