By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
One person was killed and seven other people were wounded in a shooting early Sunday outside a banquet hall in West Pullman. | NVP Video
The weekly dance party was just breaking up early Sunday, and the crowd was leaving the Universal Entertainment Center when shots rang out. Mintues later, Kolby Craig was dead, six other people were injured by gunshots, and an eighth person struck by the suspect’s vehicle.
About 2:30 a.m., the group was in the parking lot following the dance in the 11900 block of South Loomis in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.
That’s when a male suspect in a black SUV opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The SUV then sped away.
Craig, 33, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:35 a.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
A 30-year-old man was shot in the left leg; a 31-year-old woman was shot in the left leg; a 32-year-old woman was shot in the right leg; a 32-year-old man was shot in the abdomen; a 33-year-old woman was shot in the left leg; and a 36-year-old man was shot in the buttocks, police said.
Three were taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, while two others were taken to Stroger Hospital, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. They were all listed in serious-to-critical condition.
A seventh person was shot and taken to MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island, Langford said. That person was in fair-to-serious condition.
And a 40-year-old man was struck by the shooter’s vehicle and suffered a broken right ankle, police said. He was taken to Christ, where his condition stabilized.
“Two officers actually witnessed the shooting, took off after the offender’s car,” First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro said at an unrelated press conference Sunday afternoon.
“There was a slight pursuit on the expressway at which time the officers lost the vehicle on the expressway,” Navarro said.
The owner of the hall gave police surveillance video, and has voluntarily closed the property for the rest of the summer, police said.