By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Police investigate after two men were killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in the 11000 block of South Eberhart early Wednesday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A neighbor said the shooting that killed Maurice Anthony Willis and Derwin Moore early Wednesday in the Far South Side Roseland neighborhood are becoming “normal in the black community,” but he is at a loss as to how to stop them
Willis, 33, and Moore, 35, were standing on the sidewalk with the other men at 1:17 a.m. in front of a house in the 11000 block of South Eberhart, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Several males in a black SUV fired shots in their direction as they drove past, police said.
Willis, of the West Pullman neighborhood; and Moore, who lived just a block from the shooting, were both struck and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. One had been shot in the chest, the other was shot in the back.
Another 29-year-old man who was shot in the right wrist was taken to Roseland Community Hospital, while a 37-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the right arm was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said. Both of their conditions were stabilized.
Ywain Fields was sitting in his vehicle on 110th Street, talking on the phone with his girlfriend, when at least 15 shots rang out.
“It’s Fourth of July, but these didn’t sound like firecrackers,” Fields, a 55-year-old WVON DJ, said from outside the crime scene. He said his girlfriend yelled at him to go home, but he felt safe staying in the area after police and paramedics arrived.
Fields said he’s lived in the neighborhood for nearly 50 years and hears gunshots regularly.
“It’s becoming so normal in the black community. This happens so often, so much,” he said. “I’m trying my best not to become complacent, I’m trying my best but it’s so rampant. It’s so normal.”
Fields said he has five grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 4. He said he doesn’t “worry too much” about gun violence affecting his family, as they live with their parents in west suburban Aurora and south suburban Blue Island.
“This is a Chicago problem, man,” he said. “It’s a Chicago problem, and I don’t know how we’re going to stop it.”