Chicago

Possibly Pregnant Woman Among 4 Killed in Brighton Park Shooting: Police

Four people, including a woman who may have been pregnant, were killed in a shooting on Chicago’s Southwest Side Friday night.

Around 8:35 p.m., police said the woman and three men were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds in a vehicle in the 4700 block of South Fairfield Avenue in the city’s Brighton Park neighborhood.

Michelle Cano, 21; Joel Sandoval, 24; Miguel Sandoval, 27; and Ida Arvizu, 28, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Investigators believe Arvizu may have been pregnant, according to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi, though it could not be confirmed until an autopsy is completed.

Officers responding to a call of shots fired in the area discovered the victims inside a sedan, with bullet casings littering the sidewalks and street.

Maria Mier said she lives in the area where the shooting occurred. She said she heard what sounded like "machine gun" fire and climbed into her bathtub to take cover.

Asked how many rounds she heard fired, she replied "more than 30, I think" and added that it was "really, really noisy."

Mier said she hears gunfire in the area sometimes but nothing like Friday night's shooting. But Marina Carbajao, a college student who said her parents live down the street, said the neighborhood was "risky."

“It’s not a surprise, it kind of happens often here, honestly, it’s not the safest neighborhood,” she said. “It just kind of concerns me cause I leave my parents here and I go off to college.”

She and mother were headed back from gas station and pulled up to a red light when the shooting started, she said. The pair heard more than a dozen "repetitive" shots that sounded like "a machine gun," she said.

“I was with my mom in the car and I just ducked down and I jumped over to her seat,” she said. “I tried to cover her—cause you know she was freaking out—and I just wanna save my mom, you know—priorities.”

"I was like ‘just duck down and hopefully nothing happens to us,’” she recalled telling her mother.

Police said the shooting appeared to be gang-related, and they increased patrols in the area overnight following the incident.

No one is in custody in connection with the shooting as authorities continue to investigate.

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