Police ask for public’s help to find shooters who left 2 dead, 7 injured in Washington Park

Two people were killed and seven others injured in a shooting Tuesday night in Washington Park, according to Chicago police.

“We believe people have information on who the shooters were, and we need the public’s help,” Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference Wednesday morning.

Just before 8 p.m., two groups of people were at the park when a fight broke out and shots were fired, Deputy Chief Fred Melean with the Chicago Police Department said in a news conference at the park just across the street from the University of Chicago Medical Center’s emergency room.

Paramedics responded to East 51st Street and South Champlain Avenue and took five men and a woman to UChicago Medicine, according to police.

More than 40 shell casings but no weapons were recovered, Deenihan said. Detectives believe “it’s likely a gang-related conflict,” but there still isn’t enough information to sort out what group the victims belong to and who among them were shooting. There was also not a lot of video evidence of the shooting, Deenihan said.

One of the two men who died has been identified as Lionel Coward, 43, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He suffered a gunshot wound to the back of the head and was pronounced dead at 8:42 p.m. at UChicago Medicine.

Shauntina Johnson, 42, is a longtime friend and mother of Coward’s 17-year-old son, also named Lionel.

Johnson didn’t know much about what happened in the park but said Coward was with his best friend, who was shot in the arm during the attack, she said.

“I’ve known him for 22 years,” Johnson said.

“He was a quiet person, not a troublemaker.”

He was a hard worker, according to Johnson and Lionel, who were on a group phone call with the Tribune.

“It was all about him going to work. Working his job and making money,” Johnson said.

Coward’s birthday was coming up at the end of the month. “He was a happy fun-loving person,” Johnson said.

He drove for Uber Eats and DoorDash, according to his son, and he also owned an “up and coming” T-shirt making business, which he was excited about.

Sobbing, Johnson said: “I love him and I miss him and it’s hard. It’s going to be hard to deal with my son myself. It’s going to take a toll on me and his son.”

The 17-year-old and his dad were close, according to Lionel, who was in another state when the attack happened but heard of his father’s death on the news.

“I was looking at my phone,” he said.

Though Lionel lived with his mom, the father and son would often play basketball together and enjoyed barbecuing together. They saw each other often. They were both tall.

“I was taller though,” said Lionel, who is 6-foot-5.

His father was generous and would bring him shoes, food, and clothes, said Lionel, who is heading into his last year of high school.

“He’d bring me out to eat and brought clothes for me,” Lionel said, including T-shirts that his dad designed.

Just four days ago, the father and son were texting.

“He was telling me just to be safe,” Lionel said. “To be careful … about everything because it’s dangerous.”

The other man who died — a 20-year-old — was initially taken to UChicago Medicine in critical condition. According to the medical examiner’s office and police, he was pronounced deceased at 9:55 p.m. after suffering multiple gunshot wounds to his body. He has yet to be identified.

A 19-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the right shoulder and took himself to Insight Hospital in good condition, police said. Another man, 46, and a woman, 33, took themselves to UChicago Medicine in good condition with graze wounds to his right calf and her right arm, respectively.

The other victims that paramedics transported to UChicago Medicine were all listed in good condition. A 30-year-old man was shot in his left shin, a 39-year-old man was shot in the right ankle, a 27-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the upper left thigh and a 22-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to his left elbow.

No one was in custody as of Wednesday.