Police said gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire in broad daylight near Pulaski Road and Maypole Avenue on Friday afternoon.
CHICAGO, IL — Three people were killed and a fourth was critically wounded Friday afternoon when at least two gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire near a barbershop in West Garfield Park, police said, in a burst of violence that shut down a busy West Side corner.
The shooting happened just before 5 p.m. near the 4000 block of West Maypole Avenue, close to North Pulaski Road, where a barbershop and convenience store sit at the intersection. Police said four people were standing on or near the sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and at least two armed people began firing. The attack left a 32-year-old woman, a 36-year-old man and another male victim dead, while a 35-year-old man was taken to a hospital in critical condition. No arrests had been announced by Saturday afternoon, and investigators had not publicly said what set off the shooting or whether any one victim had been targeted.
Initial reports from police and local news outlets placed the shooting at about 4:45 p.m. Friday, with gunfire erupting in broad daylight as people were still moving through the corridor near Pulaski and Maypole. CBS News Chicago reported the attack happened outside a barbershop and convenience store at the corner. Police said the four victims were gathered near the sidewalk when the vehicle approached and at least two people got out and started shooting before fleeing. A 32-year-old woman was struck in the head and taken to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A 36-year-old man was shot multiple times and died at the scene. Another male victim, whose age had not been publicly released by Saturday, was shot multiple times and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A 35-year-old man was shot several times and remained in critical condition at Stroger. Chicago Fire Department officials also reported that another person was taken to a hospital in good to fair condition but had not been shot.
By Saturday, the Cook County medical examiner had identified the woman killed as Rickia Williams of Chicago. The names of the two male victims had not yet been publicly released. ABC7 reported that relatives were already gathering near the scene and trying to make sense of what happened. One woman told the station that one of the victims was her cousin. FOX 32 aired remarks from another relative, Shy Jackson, who said an officer tried to turn one of the wounded men over to help him but could not save him. She described the family’s shock and anger as investigators worked the block. Police have not said how many shots were fired, whether surveillance video captured the attack, or whether the gunmen were waiting for the group before they arrived. Those unanswered points matter because they will shape whether detectives treat the attack as a targeted ambush, a conflict that erupted on sight, or part of a wider retaliation pattern. For now, officers have said only that Area Four detectives are investigating and that the shooters remained at large.
The location carries its own painful history. The corner around Pulaski Road and Maypole Avenue has been the site of earlier gun violence tied to the same barbershop. In January 2020, five people were wounded at Gotcha Faded barbershop, 234 N. Pulaski Rd., when gunmen fired through the doorway and windows. Three of the victims in that earlier attack were children ages 11, 12 and 16, according to police and local reports at the time. That case became one of the more widely remembered West Side shootings because it hit a place where neighborhood families gathered for routine errands and haircuts. Friday’s killings happened outside that same commercial strip, turning a familiar block back into an active crime scene. The repetition is striking not only because of the address, but because it underlines how ordinary public spaces in parts of the West Side can swing suddenly from neighborhood storefront life to emergency response. Witnesses and families were left standing near yellow tape at a corner many know as a daily stop, not an isolated alley or vacant lot.
West Garfield Park has long been one of Chicago’s most burdened neighborhoods when it comes to poverty, disinvestment and violence, conditions that often sit in the background of stories like this one even when a single motive remains unknown. Regional planning data show the community area had about 15,619 residents in 2023, down more than 32% from 2000. The same snapshot put the neighborhood’s median household income at $38,179, well below the citywide figure, and found that more than 72% of occupied housing units were renter-occupied, with 23% of housing units vacant. Those numbers do not explain who pulled the trigger Friday or why four people on a sidewalk were attacked. But they help explain why each new shooting lands in a place where residents have already been living with population loss, boarded buildings and repeated exposure to trauma. In a neighborhood with a shrinking population and a long record of public safety strain, a mass shooting outside a small-business corridor is not just another police case. It is another test for families, businesses and block-level trust that are asked, again, to absorb it.
As of Saturday, the case remained in its earliest public stage. Police had described the basic sequence of events and the victims’ conditions, but they had not announced charges, named suspects or released a motive. Detectives were expected to keep collecting video, canvassing for witnesses and tracing the vehicle used in the attack. The surviving victim’s condition could also become important to the investigation if he is able to speak with detectives. The medical examiner’s office was still working through victim identification, and authorities often wait for relatives to be notified before releasing names. Prosecutors cannot move toward charges without arrests, and arrests in shootings like this often depend on a mix of witness cooperation, camera footage, vehicle evidence and digital records. In the near term, the next milestone is likely to be further identification of the dead and any police statement about suspects. Until then, the legal posture is simple but grim: three homicide deaths, one critically wounded survivor, no one in custody and a public case file still taking shape.
The scene itself reflected the split reality common after mass shootings in Chicago neighborhoods: raw grief on one side of the tape and a methodical police process on the other. Television footage showed officers and investigators spread across the block near businesses, with evidence markers and emergency vehicles crowding the street. Relatives spoke in fragments because there were not yet many official answers to hold onto. Jackson’s account on FOX 32 centered not on motive or blame, but on the moment an officer tried to help a dying man and the family realized there would be no rescue. That kind of detail gives shape to what police summaries cannot: a broad-daylight attack that lasted seconds but changed several families at once. For nearby merchants and customers, the location matters too. A barbershop is a social space as much as a business, a place where adults talk, children wait their turn and neighborhood rhythms are visible from the sidewalk. Friday’s shooting shattered that ordinary scene before the workday was over.
By Saturday evening, one victim had been identified, two others were still awaiting public identification, one survivor remained in critical condition and Chicago police had not announced any arrests. The next major update is expected to come from detectives or the medical examiner as the investigation and victim notifications continue.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.