Oak Park police are investigating shots fired in the village possibly connected to a Chicago murder investigation, following a deadly shooting that took place about a block east of Oak Park, near Division Street and Austin Boulevard on the morning of May 28.
The Chicago Tribune reported that Brittany Hill, 24, was shot and killed outside her home in the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue at about 8:50 a.m. She reportedly took cover behind a vehicle at the scene the shooting and shielded her 1-year-old daughter from the gunfire.
According to the News Gazette, two Urbana men — Michael Washington, 39, and his nephew, Eric Adams, 23 — were arrested last Tuesday in connection with the shooting. The police apprehended the men as they exited their house.
The two men “were charged in Cook County with the first-degree murder of Brittany Hill, 24, of Chicago. They appeared in court Thursday in Chicago, where Cook County judge John F. Lyke Jr. denied both men bail and called the shooting ‘chilling, mind-boggling and utterly senseless,'” the News Gazette reported.
Oak Park Police Commander Joe Moran said Oak Park police received a call of shots fired near Division Street and North Harvey Avenue at around 8:50 a.m. Oak Park police discovered several spent shell casings in Oak Park, he said.
Shortly after arriving on the scene, Oak Park police were alerted that a Hill had been dropped off at West Suburban Medical Center. The driver fled the scene after leaving Hill at the facility, Moran said.
Moran said Chicago police are handling the homicide investigation. He said Hill was exiting a vehicle in front of her home when another vehicle pulled up and those inside began firing.
Witnesses in the area of North Harvey Avenue and Division Street reported hearing several gunshots, Moran said. They also reported seeing a black vehicle and a gray vehicle flee the area.
“No one was hit or hurt in Oak Park,” Moran said.
He said Oak Park police are investigating the incident as the aggravated discharge of a firearm, and they believe there is a connection between the shots fired in Oak Park and the shooting in Chicago.
Moran said officials at Whittier Elementary School and William Hatch Elementary School were notified shortly after the shots-fired incident was reported.
CONTACT: tim@oakpark.com
