2 shot in head, woman caught in crossfire, in Austin drive-by shooting
A man and a woman were shot in the head and a third person was caught in the crossfire when a beige SUV fired on their car in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, according to WGN-TV, which reported the man later died of his injuries.
Two people were shot in the head and a woman was caught in the crossfire during a drive-by shooting in Chicago's Austin neighborhood -- not Austin, Texas, despite the shared name -- according to WGN-TV. The shooting happened around 11:17 p.m. near the 200 block of South Cicero Avenue, when a beige SUV pulled alongside a car traveling southbound and opened fire, WGN-TV reported.
A man in his 20s suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of his head, along with wounds to his thigh and armpit, according to WGN-TV's report. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead a short time later. A 29-year-old woman also suffered a gunshot wound to the head, along with wounds to her back and left arm, and was transported to Stroger Hospital in critical condition, per the same report.
A third person, a man, was caught in the crossfire and was found nearby after his car struck a parked vehicle, WGN-TV reported. The extent of his injuries relative to the other two victims is not detailed in the available reporting.
What is known about the attack
The shooting fits a pattern of gunfire directed at an occupied vehicle from another moving vehicle -- a drive-by shooting, per WGN-TV's characterization -- rather than a targeted, on-foot attack. No suspect description beyond the beige SUV is included in the retrieved reporting, and no arrests are mentioned.
The victims named
The man who died was identified as Xavier Lofton, 29, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported he was shot in the head, armpit and thigh and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. ABC7 Chicago's coverage of the same shooting reported that Lofton was a local actor who had appeared in a film about gun violence, a detail that outlet said drew added attention to his death. The third victim, the man caught in the crossfire, was identified by the Sun-Times as Lorenzo Celeste Ecford III, 37; he was shot in the back and crashed his car into a parked vehicle before he was found, and he also died at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Sun-Times' report. That account puts the overall toll at two dead and one critically wounded, rather than one dead as WGN-TV's initial report reflected -- a difference most likely explained by Ecford's death being confirmed after WGN-TV's story published.
A separate Sun-Times profile of Lofton reported that he had only recently begun pursuing acting seriously, in his late 20s, and had taken multiple acting classes at once to catch up. He had a lead role in an independent film called "When Does It Stop?" that dealt with gun violence -- in which his character is shot and killed, a coincidence the film's producer, Suless Burton, called a tragedy given how Lofton actually died. Reginald Irving, CEO of the production company that made the film, told the Sun-Times, "I couldn't do nothing but scream," on learning of Lofton's death, and described him as someone who brought joy to a classroom or set.
What remains unconfirmed
The available reporting does not establish a motive for the shooting, nor whether the man and woman who were shot in the head were the intended targets or whether the shooting was random. Both WGN-TV and the Sun-Times reported that no one was in custody as of their respective stories, and no suspect has been named or described beyond the beige SUV involved.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by WGN-TV and the Chicago Sun-Times. It restores a story originally published on this site in December 2022; figures are as reported at the time.