An aspiring music producer who moved home to a Chicago suburb less than a year ago after attending school in California was gunned down in the city while riding home from a night out with friends.
Sami Salaymeh, a 27-year-old from Hanover Park, was fatally shot and a 23-year-old woman injured in what family members say was a random shooting at a stoplight in the city.
Police say three people were sitting in a pickup truck at a red light around 4 a.m. in the 2400 block of South Michigan Avenue when a car pulled up and a shooter opened fire.
The uninjured driver took both victims to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, family members said.
Salaymeh was shot in the stomach and pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. The woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and was said to be in stable condition, according to authorities.
The pickup truck was marked with signage from a roofing and repair company out of suburban Downers Grove, American Dream Home Improvement.
Police said it was not clear if the victims were shot at random or targeted, but Salaymeh's family said they believe their son was shot "for no reason. No reason at all."
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"You live out here in the suburbs and that's the last thing on your mind, my son got shot," said his mother, Fatin Salaymeh. "You hear it in the city, and I watch the news unfortunately every day. But you never think it happens to you and you never expect it to happen to you."
Family and friends returned to the scene of the South Loop shooting hoping cameras may have captured what happened.
"Whoever seen something, anything to come up," Fatin Salaymeh said. "It's not going to bring my baby back but at least I know that someone takes responsibility for what they did."
