By MITCH DUDEK and SIMONE ALICEA
Chicago Sun-Times
Police believe a high-powered assault rifle was used Sunday afternoon to gun down 21-year-old Salvador Suarez outside a Back of the Yards neighborhood Catholic church that was holding Mass at the time.
The victim “was walking eastbound on West 46th street when a vehicle—described as a light-colored Saturn four-door, possibly green or beige or light colored—drove up and an individual started firing shots at him from inside the car,” Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Gene Roy said at a press conference at the scene of the shooting in the 4600 block of South Hermitage.
The shooting happened about 1:30 p.m outside Holy Cross Church. The victim tried to run but was hit multiple times with gunfire, Roy said.
Suarez, who lived just a block away in the 4500 block of South Hermitage, was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:05 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
“At this point there’s nothing to indicate that the church or parishioners were targeted,” Roy said.
“This does appear to be gang-motivated,” he added.
“There’s literally dozens of empty shell casings on the street that you can see marked by orange cones, and this is indicative of the level of violence that we see on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“I have talked with our partners of the Chicago Archdiocese and Chicago Public School system to make sure that they are aware of the incident,” Roy said.
Asked whether or not the shooting was related to several other shootings that occurred recently in the area, Roy responded: “It is certainly the investigative theory our detectives are going to be working on.”
A neighbor who asked not to be named said several gangs have been at each others’ throats in the last few weeks.
“Sometimes they just drive their cars into each other like a demolition derby,” he said.