5 people shot outside Chicago high school

[January 10, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- Five people were shot as spectators left a crowded high school basketball game Friday in what police called a possibly gang-related drive-by attack that sent panicked students running into a snowy street on the city's South Side.

Five males -- three in serious condition and two in critical -- were taken from Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy around 8 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. Hospital spokespeople said later that at least three were expected to be treated and released.

"It was crazy. It was like killers on the loose," said Joshua Glaze, 15, a freshman at the school.

The game was in overtime and some students began to leave the building, Glaze said.

A vehicle then drove up and a person or people inside started shooting into the crowd, said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

No suspect has been identified or arrested, but the shooting was "isolated" and possibly gang-related, Weis said. Two hundred officers were in the area looking for suspects, he said.

Dunbar freshman Shaneisha Turman, 15, said she saw a silver truck pull up to a bus stop outside the school. People inside the truck pretended to fire a gun and then "they really started shooting," she told the Chicago Tribune.

People were shouting, "'They're shooting!'" Turman said. "It was a lot of people shouting and running."

Police blocked access to streets at least two blocks from the high school to make way for ambulances and police cars.

Andres Durbak, director of the city schools' Office of Safety and Security, said video taken in and around the school has been handed over to police.

"This is a tragedy," Durbak said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond declined to characterize the victims beyond gender and would not say whether they had attended the basketball game. She added that they were "not necessarily students."

The high school has about 1,600 students and is the alma mater of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson.

[Associated Press; By RUPA SHENOY]

Associated Press writer Caryn Rousseau contributed to this report.

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