Mass shooting near Chicago funeral home injures at least 14 people

Chicago police investigate the scene of a mass shooting where more then a dozen people were shot in the city's Gresham neighbourhood. Photo / AP

Fourteen people were injured in shootings late on Tuesday outside a funeral home on Chicago's South Side, police said.

First Deputy Superintendent Eric Carter said mourners outside a funeral home were fired upon from a passing SUV, AP reports.

Carter says several targets of the shooting returned fire. The SUV later crashed and the occupants fled in several directions. One person of interest has been taken into custody.

At least 60 shell casings were found at the scene.

Fourteen people, who are all adults, were being treated at five area hospitals, Carter said.

Police said their conditions were unknown, while Chicago fire officials said at least 11 of them were listed in serious-to-critical condition.

Police said mourners outside a funeral home were fired upon from a passing SUV. Photo / AP

Arnita Gerder and Kenneth Hughes told the Chicago Sun-Times they were home watching television when they heard gunshots.

"We went out in the street and all we saw was bodies just laying everywhere," Gerder told the newspaper. "They were shot up everywhere.

"We thought it was a war out here. It's ridiculous all the shooting that's going on out here, it really has to stop."

No arrests have been made and the scene remains active.

The shooting comes as the Department of Homeland Security is planning to deploy dozens of federal agents to Chicago to deal with an uptick in violent crime in the city.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, after threatening to sue if President Donald Trump acted without her permission, said on Tuesday the city would be working with federal agents to fight crime.

Lightfoot has been skeptical of federal agents being sent to Chicago by Trump due to the controversy in Portland, Oregon, where the Trump administration sent federal officers after weeks of protests there over police brutality and racial injustice that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Lightfoot said she expects Chicago will receive resources that will plug into existing federal agencies that already work with the city, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Oregon's governor and Portland's mayor have expressed anger with the presence of the federal agents, saying that the city's protests had started to ease just as the federal agents started taking action.

Trump has framed such protests in the nation's large cities as a failure by "liberal Democrats" who run them, praised the officers' actions and said he was looking to send agents to other cities.

He pointed to rising gun violence in Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, where more than 63 people were shot, 12 fatally, over the weekend.

- additional reporting AP