Police spokesman Officer Hector Alfaro says the first shooting happened at about 6 p.m. Thursday and that the attacks continued into the early hours Friday in various neighborhoods.

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis (wees) says most of the seven who died in the shootings had documented gang ties. Nobody was in custody in any of the slayings Friday evening.

At least two of the victims died in drive-by shootings, including an 18-year-old who was killed as he pushed his son down the street in a stroller. Two others were shot and wounded when someone in a pickup truck opened fire on a basketball game on the city's South Side.