By Gloria Ogbonna
Two teenagers were shot Wednesday afternoon on Chicago’s South Side, leaving one dead and another injured in a burst of gunfire that sent students running for safety just after school dismissal, according to the Chicago Police Department.
The shooting occurred shortly before 3:25 p.m. in the 6300 block of South Stony Island Avenue in the city’s Woodlawn neighborhood. Witnesses said the violence erupted just minutes after classes let out at Hyde Park Academy High School, a nearby public high school.
Police said a 16-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl were standing at a bus stop when an unidentified suspect approached, pulled out a firearm, and opened fire. The boy was struck multiple times. He was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition but later died from his injuries.
Family members identified the victim as Eric Billups, a sophomore at Hyde Park Academy. The 16-year-old girl was shot in the left leg and transported to the same hospital, where she was listed in fair condition.
Outside the emergency room Wednesday evening, Billups’ grieving family gathered in disbelief as they struggled to process the sudden loss.
“It’s more disbelief because he really didn’t deserve this,” said Nikee Ford, the victim’s cousin. “I don’t think anybody deserves it, but he really didn’t. He was a baby. He had his whole life ahead of him.”
Another cousin, Ali Malone, described the devastation felt by the family. “They just took a big piece of our family,” Malone said.
The deadly shooting unfolded steps away from the school and near a local YMCA, where students had gathered after dismissal. Witnesses described a chaotic scene as gunshots rang out and teenagers scattered in panic.
“There go a book right there. One of them dropped their book,” said John Watts, who lives near the scene. He said he heard the shots and looked out his window to see students running in all directions. “All you saw was kids scattering,” Watts said. “You could see the two individuals leaning against the gate. You knew something was wrong.”
A backpack was also left behind at the scene, a haunting reminder of how abruptly the violence unfolded.
Clyde Caldwell, a teacher’s assistant at Hyde Park Academy, said both teens were familiar faces in the classroom.
“They in the class. You see them every day,” Caldwell said. “Could you imagine, you leave your child, your child leaves home in the morning, and you expect them to come back home — and they’re not coming back home. So even though he was not my child, he was my child. Because when they come in that building, we love all of the students.”
The tragedy adds to a painful string of recent losses for the Hyde Park Academy community. Just last month, 18-year-old student Lania Smith was killed in a hit-and-run crash in Dolton. Another student, 15-year-old Violet Harris, also lost her life in a separate traffic incident while riding her scooter near 77th Street and Exchange Avenue.
Billups’ family said he was one of three sons and described him as a young man with promise and a bright future ahead. Now, they are left grappling with the emptiness his absence leaves behind.
“They don’t even understand how they were just used to take somebody’s life, an innocent person’s life,” Ford said of the shooter. “And you’ve got to live with that for the rest of your life.”
As of Wednesday night, no arrests had been announced. Area One detectives with the Chicago Police Department are continuing to investigate the shooting.
For a community already weighed down by recent heartbreak, Wednesday’s violence has left students, educators, and families once again mourning the loss of a young life taken far too soon.
Source ABC7
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