Chicago shooting during dispute leaves 2 dead, 3 wounded

CHICAGO (AP) — A person opened fire during a verbal dispute early Friday in downtown Chicago, killing two men and wounding three other people, police said.

The five who were shot were leaving a business about 1:45 a.m. when the person they were in a dispute with opened fire with a handgun, police said in a statement.

Two men in their 20s were pronounced dead at a hospital, police said, and two other men were wounded along with a fifth person. The wounded were reported in good condition.

No one has been arrested, police said, and details about the suspected shooter haven’t been released. The shooting took place near a Chicago Fire Department station, according to media reports.

In a separate incident, a police officer was shot hours later. His condition was not immediately known, spokesman Tom Ahearn said.

The downtown shootings come amid a surge in deadly violence in Chicago in recent years, and follow other downtown-area shootings this year, including one that left two people dead and seven injured outside a fast-food restaurant and a shooting in Millennium Park that killed a teen.

So far this year, however, the number of homicides in Chicago is down from the same period in 2021, according to police.