Two dead and eight injured after shooting outside a McDonald’s in Chicago

Two people are dead and another eight are wounded following a mass shooting outside a McDonald’s in Chicago, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at about 10:40 p.m. on Thursday by the McDonald’s restaurant in the 800 block of North State Street, which is next to the Chicago Avenue subway station, Chicago police said.

Terrified witnesses screamed and ran away from the scene where the 10 people were shot. The eight wounded victims were rushed to nearby hospitals in a serious to critical condition, with at least one undergoing surgery, officials said. 

A victim had suffered burns, possibly from being injured on the CTA Red Line subway, Chief Juan Hernandez, a spokesperson with the Chicago Fire Department told the Chicago Tribune. 

One person was taken into custody and a weapon was recovered, police said in statement without releasing the identities of the two people killed in the shooting.

Two people are dead and another eight are wounded following a shooting outside a McDonald’s in Chicago, authorities said

The shooting occurred at about 10:40 p.m. on Thursday by the McDonald’s restaurant in the 800 block of North State Street, which is next to the Chicago Avenue subway station, Chicago police said

One victim was in ‘grave’ condition and the other gunshot victims were all in serious to critical condition, Hernandez said late on Thursday night.

Details about what led to the shooting weren’t immediately released by police, but a witness, Deonna Jackson, 18, said the shooting appeared to stem from a fight outside the restaurant.

‘When the fight first started, we were right next to them,’ Deonna Jackson, 18, told the Chicago Sun-Times. ‘We had to run because I didn’t want anyone to swing on me.’

Jackson said that a group of people had started a fight with a man who had been with friends.

‘We were literally right there. The person that they jumped on, we were talking to the people he was with, which turned out to be some girls.

‘We get to 7/11, we turn around and they just get to shooting, to shooting like crazy.’ 

She told ABC 7 Chicago: ‘We walked across the street to the store and next thing we know, people started shooting and everyone just got hit.

‘My first instinct was just run because I have been hit before.’ 

Amid the chaotic aftermath of the shooting, a woman could be heard yelling at a police officer asking: ‘What hospital? My brother got shot.’ 

Chicago police work at the scene of a shooting near East Chicago Avenue and North State Street in the Near North Side neighborhood on Thursday

As paramedics and officers responded Thursday, a fight erupted between two people across the street from the scene of the shooting, the Chicago Tribune reported, and some people crossed a line of police tape and argued with officers before they were moved away. 

Chicago police said the crime scene was extended to include the CTA Red Line subway station where officers were looking for the weapon, which has since been found. 

Two witnesses said they had been walking near the McDonalds when they heard shots fired. 

‘It was frightening,’ one witness told NBC Chicago. ‘Cause you don’t know what’s going on. I eat by Subway here because it’s close to where I live. I go by this street and I go by McDonald’s. 

‘What if something happens while I’m walking down the street? It’s frightening and it’s scary. It makes you feel unsafe, to be honest.’  

Additional details about the circumstances of the shooting weren’t immediately released. An investigation is ongoing.

The shooting comes amid a surge in deadly violence in the city in recent years. And it follows a deadly shooting last weekend in downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park that killed a teen and led the city to tighten a curfew for young people as part of efforts to curb violence.