Police said at least two gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire near a barbershop and convenience store in West Garfield Park.
CHICAGO, Ill. — At least two gunmen stepped from a vehicle and opened fire Friday afternoon near a barbershop and convenience store in West Garfield Park, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth on a busy West Side block, Chicago police said.
By Saturday, authorities had identified the dead as Rickia Williams, 32, Kenneth M. Bell Jr., 27, and Lavell Lee, 36, while detectives still had not announced arrests, named suspects or explained what led to the attack. The shooting drew sharp attention because it happened in broad daylight outside neighborhood businesses at a corner known to residents, and because it reopened old wounds at a barbershop corridor that had already seen a major shooting several years earlier.
Police said the attack happened about 4:45 p.m. in the 4000 block of West Maypole Avenue near North Pulaski Road. Four people were standing on or near a sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and at least two people got out and fired, according to police accounts. Lee was shot multiple times and died at the scene. Bell suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. Williams was struck in the head and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. A fourth man, 35, was shot multiple times and remained in critical condition at Stroger. Police said the shooting happened outside a barbershop and convenience store on the corner, turning an ordinary late afternoon into a blockwide crime scene within seconds.
As officers sealed off the area, more details began to fill in around the edges of the case, though not the motive. Police said the victims were standing together when the shooters arrived, but detectives had not said whether one person was the main target or whether the group was chosen for another reason. Witnesses told local television that the gunfire broke out near an alley behind several businesses and homes on the block. Another man was hurt while running from the shots, though he was not hit by gunfire. A police report said he broke an ankle and was taken to a hospital in good condition. Police also later found the vehicle involved had been set on fire, a sign that whoever carried out the attack may have tried to destroy evidence soon after leaving the scene.
The storefront itself gave the shooting a deeper local meaning. An hour after the attack, officers were focused on Gotcha Faded, a barbershop on Pulaski Road near the corner where the victims were shot. Traffic was blocked between Maypole Avenue and Lake Street while police moved in and out of the shop and guarded the entrance. The location had already been scarred once before. In January 2020, two men came to the same barbershop, walked out and then fired into the business from outside, wounding five people. Three of those victims were boys ages 11, 12 and 16. Two adult men also were shot. That earlier case was not publicly linked to Friday’s attack, and police have given no sign the shootings are connected. Even so, the overlap in place was hard to miss for a neighborhood that has seen too many shootings in places where daily life is supposed to feel normal.
By Saturday evening, the official posture of the case was plain and grim. Area Four detectives were investigating three homicides and one critical injury, and no one had been taken into custody. Cook County Crime Stoppers announced a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. Its executive director, Paul Rutherford, said the goal was to bring justice and closure to the victims’ families. He also said the block has a number of surveillance cameras that investigators hope will help fill in the missing minutes before and after the shots were fired. Police had not publicly said how many rounds were fired, whether the driver also took part, whether any weapon had been recovered or whether the people who opened fire had been following the victims before they arrived. The next likely public milestone is an arrest announcement or a charging decision from prosecutors.
The human toll was visible long before investigators were ready to answer those questions. Family members gathered near the scene in tears as police worked behind yellow tape. Several neighbors hugged each other and declined to speak. Shay Jackson, who said one of the dead was her cousin, described the shock of hearing from an officer who tried to help. “We talked to officer who tried to save him,” Jackson said, adding that the officer told the family there was no saving him. Christian Temple Church minister William Harris also spoke near the block and pleaded for an end to the bloodshed. “It don’t need to be violence out here,” Harris said. Their words did not explain why the shooting happened, but they captured the mood around Pulaski and Maypole after the gunfire stopped: grief, anger and the familiar strain of waiting for answers that had not yet come.
As of Saturday night, three people were dead, one man remained in critical condition and the shooters had not been publicly identified. Detectives were expected to keep working through witness accounts, camera footage and the burned vehicle as the next update in the case.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.