A Mexican Independence Day celebration at a New City dance studio was cut short Monday evening after what witnesses described as stray bullets pierced the front of the business and wounded four people, including a 13-year-old girl.
Olivia Gonzalez, a friend of the wounded girl’s mother who was present during the shooting, said a group of attendees, which numbered more than 20, were gathered to take a photo when the shooting started.
“We tried to protect ourselves, but we realized that our peers had been wounded,” Gonzalez said in Spanish Tuesday, later adding that “everything happened really fast.”
Surveillance video from the business, Body Factory Nutrition, shows a group of people run from the front of the business, the part closer to West 51st Street, toward the back while at least three apparent gunshots ring out.
Three apparent bullet holes in the empty business’ door and windows could be seen Tuesday. Green, red and white balloons were still inside and what looked like dried blood on the floor had not been cleaned up.
Officers responded to a call about gunshots in the area near the business, which is at the southeast corner of 51st and South Laflin streets, about 8:30 p.m. Monday, Chicago police said. At the scene, officers found four people with gunshot wounds.
Police said a 48-year-old woman was shot in the arm and a 57-year-old woman was shot in the hand and were taken to different hospitals in good condition.
A 29-year-old man with a neck wound was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to the Police Department. Police later said the man’s condition had been updated to good.
The girl had a gunshot wound in her lower back and was taken to a hospital in fair condition, police said. Gonzales said she called her friend Tuesday morning to ask how her daughter was doing and learned the girl was “in a lot of pain.”
Chicago police said about 10 p.m. Monday that the circumstances of the shooting were unknown and no one was in custody, though detectives were investigating.
A half hour after the shooting, officers had taped off the business and the apartment building where it’s located along with a grassy lot on the south side of 51st. Blinking red and green letters advertising Body Factory Nutrition mixed with light from the street lamps and squad cars, as police clustered near 51st and Laflin.
Body Factory Nutrition doubles as a dance studio and a smoothie and juice bar.
Those inside the studio milled back and forth or sat on the floor on their phones. A stroller was visible inside the door, and a woman gathered a toddler into her arms.
Gonzalez, a Brighton Park neighborhood resident, said she has gone to the business’ classes, which include Zumba, everyday for about a year.
Mike Morris, 45, said he has lived in a building on Laflin, north of Body Factory Nutrition, for about 15 years.
“I was eating dinner — that’s when I heard all the shots,” Morris said.
According to Morris, the shooting lasted about 10 seconds and Morris could hear bullets hit the gate in front of his building.
Morris said he soon learned from neighbors his car had been struck by bullets. The car was parked on Laflin about 50 yards north of Body Factory Nutrition when the shooting happened, Morris said.
A Cadillac Escalade parked in front of Morris’ building did not have a back window Tuesday. Bits of glass poked out from the window frame and chunks of glass were on the car’s trunk. Morris said he swept up the glass in the street Tuesday morning.
Morris said he believes Body Factory Nutrition got caught in crossfire, speculating that the targets of the shooting had run north on Laflin.
“They got good smoothies — great smoothies, healthy too,” Morris said of Body Factory Nutrition. “They’re nice people, so I hate that this happened to them.”
Edgar Brown, 34, who lives in the apartment building where Body Factory Nutrition is housed, said patrons of the business work out basically “every day” and “don’t bother anybody.”
Like Morris, Brown believes the dance studio got caught in crossfire, he said. When the shooting happened, Brown said he “hit the ground” at home.
“I didn’t know a kid got hit. It’s just ridiculous,” Brown said.
