Police said at least two gunmen got out of a vehicle and opened fire near a barbershop and convenience store on a busy West Side corner.
CHICAGO, Ill. — Three people were killed and a fourth was critically wounded Friday afternoon when gunmen stepped out of a vehicle and opened fire near Pulaski Road and Maypole Avenue in West Garfield Park, police said.
The shooting drew immediate attention across Chicago because it happened in broad daylight outside a small business strip, not on an isolated block, and because the death toll rose quickly as officials sorted out the victims’ conditions. By Saturday, the Cook County medical examiner had identified the three people killed as Rickia Williams, 32, Kenneth M. Bell Jr., 27, and Lavell Lee, 36. A 35-year-old man remained hospitalized in critical condition and had not been publicly identified. Police had not announced arrests, named suspects or said what led to the attack, leaving families and investigators with a clear sequence of violence but few public answers about motive.
Police said the shooting happened about 4:45 p.m. Friday in the 4000 block of West Maypole Avenue, near North Pulaski Road. The four victims were standing on or near a sidewalk when a vehicle pulled up and at least two armed people got out and started firing, according to police accounts carried by local news outlets. The attack unfolded outside a barbershop and convenience store at the corner, a place where traffic from the block, nearby homes and small businesses meets in the late afternoon. Officers and paramedics rushed in as gunfire stopped. One man died at the scene. The other victims were taken to hospitals on the West Side. The area was soon shut down with tape as detectives marked evidence, blocked off the storefronts and began trying to piece together what happened in the short burst of gunfire.
By Saturday, officials had filled in much of the victim list. Williams was shot in the head and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. Lee was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene. Bell also suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital. The surviving shooting victim, a 35-year-old man, was reported in critical condition at Stroger. Another man also was hurt in the chaos, though he was not struck by bullets. According to a police report, he was injured while running from the gunfire and was taken to a hospital in good condition with a broken ankle. That detail added to the picture of a fast attack that hit the group directly but also sent bystanders scrambling for cover on a crowded block.
Some of the clearest public details came from witnesses and early police accounts, but key parts of the case were still missing. Witnesses said the shooting happened near an alley behind several businesses and homes on the block. Police said at least two gunmen got out of the vehicle and fired, but they had not said whether the driver also took part, whether the shooters had followed the victims before arriving, or whether one person in the group was the main target. Detectives also had not said how many shots were fired. A police report later said officers found the vehicle involved had been set on fire, an important sign that the attackers may have tried to destroy evidence soon after leaving the scene. Investigators had not publicly said where that vehicle was found or whether any weapon had been recovered.
The location gave the shooting an added layer of weight because the same barbershop corridor has been hit before. In January 2020, gunmen fired into Gotcha Faded barbershop at 234 N. Pulaski Rd., near Maypole, wounding five people. Three of those victims were children ages 11, 12 and 16. In that earlier case, police said two men went into the shop, came back out and then sprayed bullets through the window. Friday’s shooting was not publicly linked to that older case, and detectives have given no sign that the attacks are connected. Still, the overlap in place was hard to miss. What should have been a normal stop for a haircut, food or conversation at the corner once again turned into a major crime scene, reviving memories of an earlier shooting that had already left the block with a painful history.
West Garfield Park has long carried the weight of gun violence, and the neighborhood’s broader numbers help explain why another mass shooting landed so hard. Regional planning data show the community area had 15,619 residents in 2023, down 32.1% from 2000. The same snapshot points to a neighborhood shaped by long population loss and a shrinking base of households and businesses. Those numbers do not explain who pulled the trigger Friday or why four people standing on a sidewalk were attacked. But they do explain why a shooting outside a barbershop is felt as more than one day’s crime report. On blocks where families already live with repeated violence, each new attack adds to grief, fear and mistrust, especially when it happens in the middle of the day at a place people know by name.
As of Saturday evening, the case remained in the early evidence-gathering stage. Area Four Detectives were investigating, and police had not announced charges or arrests. Detectives were expected to keep reviewing witness statements, checking security cameras near the businesses and trying to trace the vehicle used in the attack. Those next steps matter because shootings like this often move forward only when video, car evidence, digital records and witness cooperation begin to line up. The condition of the surviving victim could also become important if he is able to speak with detectives. Until then, the legal posture was simple and grim: three homicide deaths, one critically wounded survivor and no public explanation yet for who ordered or carried out the shooting. The next likely milestone is a police announcement on suspects, or a prosecutorial filing after an arrest.
By Saturday, community voices were starting to shape the public response even as many official answers were still missing. Christian Temple Church minister William Harris spoke near the scene and described a neighborhood worn down by recurring violence. “It don’t need to be violence out here,” Harris said. Cook County Crime Stoppers later offered up to $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. Its executive director, Paul Rutherford, said the goal was to bring justice and some measure of closure to the families. He also noted that the area has many surveillance cameras and said investigators hope that footage will help fill in the missing pieces. Those remarks did not settle the case, but they showed the two forces already at work on the block: grief from relatives and neighbors, and the slower, methodical effort to turn scattered evidence into a criminal case.
The scene itself underscored why the attack spread so quickly through the city. A barbershop is not just a storefront. It is a place where children wait, adults talk and neighborhood routines play out in public view. On Friday, that ordinary setting was interrupted in seconds by a burst of gunfire that killed three people and left another fighting for his life. By Saturday night, the dead had been identified, the survivor remained in critical condition and the shooters were still at large. The next public update is expected to come from detectives, prosecutors or the medical examiner as the investigation continues.
Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.