At least 8 wounded in shootings since Friday evening

At least eight people have been wounded in citywide shootings since Friday evening.

On Saturday night, a 50-year-old driver crashed into a tree and had to be removed from his burning vehicle after being struck by gunfire in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

At 8:51 p.m., the man was driving in the 5500 block of West LeMoyne when an unknown shooter fired a bullet into his head, according to Chicago police. The car rammed into a tree and went up in flames. Firefighters extinguished the flames and the 50-year-old was taken to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. He was in critical condition.

Two men were wounded early Saturday in a shooting in Avondale on the Northwest Side.

The men, ages 29 and 57, were driving at 2:10 a.m. in the 3200 block of North Kimball Avenue when a van approached them and someone inside fired shots, Chicago police said.

The 29-year-old was shot twice in his back and taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition, according to police. The other man was struck in his neck and taken to the same hospital in good condition.

A 26-year-old man was wounded early Saturday in the shooting in the South Side Chatham neighborhood.

About 1:45 a.m., he was sitting inside a vehicle waiting for a date at a gas station in the 8700 block of South State Street when someone approached him and fired shots, police said.

The man was shot in both legs and was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where his condition stabilized, police said. No one was in custody.

Blood, shattered glass and shell casings were found at a BP gas station, which had been taped off by officers shortly after the shooting. The station’s glass door was shattered, as well as the windows of a Cadillac parked at a pump.

The weekend lasts from 5 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

Over the extended Christmas holiday weekend, three people were killed and 27 others wounded in Chicago gun violence.