Chicago Funeral Shooting Looked Like a ‘War Zone,' Witnesses Say

The incident comes just hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot confirmed that federal agents are being sent to the city

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Gresham residents recounted the scene Tuesday night after a shooting wounded at least 14 people following a funeral service.

Residents in the area reported hearing gunshots before seeing victims in the street outside of the funeral home.

"All we saw was just bodies laying everywhere," witness Arnita Gerder said at the scene. "Shot up everywhere, all over. Legs, stomach, back, all over the place. We thought it was a war out here."

The shooting happened just before 7:30 p.m. in the 1000 block of West 79th Street, according to authorities.

"We saw a car with about six bullet holes in it and it was turned facing the grass like he lost control," Kenneth Hughes, another witness at the scene, said. "We saw a hat down on the ground and evidently it was his."

Gerder and Hughes said they were inside their home when they heard shots fired and went outside to investigate. The couple said they saw several people, including three women, laying on the ground with gunshot wounds and they believed the victims were leaving a nearby funeral home when they were shot.

"Unfortunately it appears like it was planned because as the people were coming out of the funeral home, then the shots rang out like they were literally waiting on them to come out," Hughes said.

Hughes and Gerder added that everyone who was shot appeared to be wearing white.

The incident comes just hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot confirmed that federal agents are being sent to the city to curb violence, but the city doesn't "see a Portland-style deployment coming."

"I give it a thumbs up," Hughes said of President Donald Trump's plan to send federal agents to Chicago in an effort to curb the city's violence, "because of the violence that's continuing day in and day out, weekend, little children and it's just unnatural that all this violence is like literally in a war zone."

Lightfoot said that, as of now, the Trump administration will not be deploying "unnamed agents" to Chicago's streets.

One person of interest was in custody shortly after the incident, police said, but they noted that the shooters weren't immediately known.

First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter said the shooting started when someone in a black vehicle opened fire on people attending a funeral on the block. People at the funeral in turn fired back and the vehicle crashed midway down the block, he said.

According to Chicago authorities, 14 people, all adults, were at five different hospitals following the mass hooting, but their conditions were not known.

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