Possibly pregnant woman among 4 people shot dead in Brighton Park

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Four people, including a woman who may have been pregnant, were shot to death Friday evening in a Southwest Side Brighton Park neighborhood rifle attack.

The three men and one woman were found in a car about 8:35 p.m. in the 4700 block of South Fairfield, Chicago Police said.

CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said investigators believe the woman was pregnant, but that they wouldn’t be able to confirm that until an autopsy is completed.

Michelle A. Cano, 21; Joel Sandoval, 24; Miguel Sandoval, 27; and Ida Arvizu, 28, were all pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Chicago Police Sgt. Al Stinites said officers were responding to a call of shots fired when they found the four dead in the vehicle.

The circumstances of the shooting were unknown.

“It’s a fluid investigation, and we’re trying to put everything together right now,” Stinites said.

Patrols in the 9th District were being stepped up Friday night in response to the killings, he said.

No one was in custody as Area Central detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.

Police placed a white sheet over the shattered windshield of the sedan, which idled at the corner of 47th and Fairfield next to a warehouse. Dozens of gold rifle casings littered the street and sidewalk nearby.

Family members made frantic phone calls and clutched each other outside the block-long crime scene.

“We’re still trying to figure out who’s who,” an officer told a sobbing woman who tried to push past him.

Marisela Rodrigues said she was putting away dishes in her apartment about three blocks away when she heard rapid gunfire — at least 20 shots.

“It sounded like something out of a movie,” she said.

The shooting inched Chicago closer to 500 homicides this year. After the four deaths, 493 people have been killed in the city this year, 458 of which have been shot to death, according to data maintained by the Chicago Sun-Times.