By STEFANO ESPOSITO and LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times
Police tape at 60th and Carpenter where one Safe Passage worker reported hearing “six or seven shots.” | Stefano Esposito/Sun-Times
David Thomas was shot and killed in a drive-by attack Friday morning on a Chicago Public Schools Safe Passage route in Englewood.
The 32-year-old Thomas was walking in the 6000 block of South Aberdeen when someone fired at him from a passing gray vehicle about 7:30 a.m., according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Shot four times, he was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:51 a.m., authorities said. Thomas’ home address was unknown Friday afternoon.
One Safe Passage worker said no schoolchildren were present at the time of the shooting. Another Safe Passage worker reported hearing “six or seven” shots. Neither would provide their names.
A woman who lives at 60th and Carpenter, a block to the east, said she was about to make some scrambled eggs when she heard gunshots. The woman, who didn’t want her name used, ran outside to find a man lying in the road at 60th and Aberdeen. He was calling out for help, the woman said.
“He raised his head one time and tried to say something, but he couldn’t get it out,” the woman said. “When he raised his head, he fell back down and he raised it no more.”
The woman said the man had a number of bullet wounds in his back. She also said she’d seen him in the neighborhood previously, although she said he didn’t live there.
“He works,” she said. “He has a job.”
She added that she could not remember the last time there had been a shooting in the area; she and her neighbors generally feel safe, she said.
Safe Passage workers in their day-glow green vests stood on 60th Street, watching police at the scene. The workers were not eager to talk, although one said she’d heard six or seven gunshots just prior to the fatal shooting. Detectives could be seen going door to door in the vicinity of the shooting.
According to CPS, the corner of 60th and Aberdeen is along a Chicago Public Schools Safe Passage Route to Nicholson STEM Academy at 6006 S. Peoria St., about three blocks to the east. Langford Community Academy at 6010 S. Throop St. is about four blocks to the west.