Mass shooting outside Chicago nightclub

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Four people were killed and at least 14 others were wounded in a drive-by mass shooting outside the Artis Lounge nightclub in Chicago's River North neighborhood on Wednesday night.

Chicago police said around 11 p.m., a dark vehicle drove past the nightclub in the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue, where three people from inside fired shots into a crowd of people standing on the sidewalk.

The crowd was said to be leaving the nightclub following an album release party for rapper Mello Buckzz.

The victims injured in the shooting range in age from 21 to 32 years old. Of the injured, two were taken to Illinois Masonic Hospital, two were taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, three were taken to Stroger Hospital and six were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in conditions ranging from good to critical. Four of the injured are in serious to critical condition, according to Chicago police.

Two men who were shot were taken to Stroger Hospital, where they were pronounced dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office has identified them as 25-year-old Leon Andrew Henry and 23-year-old Devonte Terrell Williamson. A 26-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman were both shot in the chest and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where they died, Chicago police said.

Shaniah Battle, who was among the 14 people wounded in the shooting, said one of the two women killed in the drive-by was her sister, Aviance King.

Police said the shooting was a targeted attack, with some of the victims among Mello Buckzz's inner circle.

"They didn't care who was struck, and in a matter of seconds they were able to shoot 18 people," Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling said. "There's a possibility that there was a rifle used … there were two different calibers of shell casings."

"We are mobilizing right now to make sure this incident does not return and bring about more violence," Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Snelling would not confirm or deny the shooting might have been gang-related, or concerns of possible retaliation.

"There's coordination; not only coordination with our local partners here, but also our federal partners when it comes to the possibility of this being some kind of gang conflict," he said.

Mello Buckzz posted social media tributes to those killed, including her boyfriend, Williamson, sharing photos of the couple together, one caption reading "my handsomeeee man."

Other posts talked about King and another woman killed, Taylor, with the rapper writing "we were having so much fun in our private little life couldn't leave each other alone glued to my hip every day."

Buckzz released a statement on social media, saying in part, "Prayers up for all my sisters god please wrap yo arms around every last one of them." She then went on to say, "Feel like everything just weighing down on me ... all I can do is talk to god and pray."

Artis Lounge nightclub confirmed they are working with authorities as the investigation continues.

Snelling said the city has issued a summary closure of the building, shutting down the club. Their investigation into the location itself continues.

Pastor Donovan Price spoke to CBS News Chicago after arriving on the chaotic scene.

"The worst, the worst I've seen," he said. "People wanting to find their other people, find who was alive, finding who was you know where their phones were because they dropped them in the chaos, so they couldn't even call, or couldn't even find their car keys. It's, it's something that you wouldn't expect to find in the city, we have a lot of shootings, but nothing, nothing like this."

No arrests have been made as of Thursday, but police said they believe three shooters were involved. The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing.

The same block was also the scene of a mass shooting in November 2022, when the same nightclub was known as Hush Lounge. One person was killed and three others wounded after a group that had been thrown out of Hush started fighting.

Police shut down the Hush nightclub after that shooting, and Artis Lounge later opened in the same location.