Posted on April 19, 2016

1 Killed, 4 Wounded While Recording Video: ‘I Told My Nephew, Don’t Be Going to That Park’

Deanese Williams-Harris et al., Chicago Tribune, April 19, 2016

Damond Dawson was “goofing around” with his brother and other relatives and friends, rapping and shooting video in Foster Park when two gunmen opened fire early Tuesday, killing Dawson and wounding four others, according to police and relatives.

“Basically like an ambush,” said Dawson’s aunt, Angela Mathis-Tate, 44. “One coming west of the park and one coming south.”

The shooting happened around 2:20 a.m. as Dawson, 23, and a small group were “rapping around (taking) selfies with their phones” at Foster Park at 1440 W. 84th St., according to relatives.

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A 19-year-old woman was shot twice in the groin area and was taken in serious condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center.  Three other men took themselves to the same hospital: a 20-year-old man shot nine times in the leg and shoulder, a 25-year-old man grazed in the leg and an 18-year-old man grazed in the back. {snip}

The men are all related, according to Mathis-Tate. Dawson’s brother was shot, and the other two men are brothers who are Dawson’s second cousins.

“They were very close,” Mathis-Tate said. “It was like they were all brothers. They just hung out together, go to parties together, go to clubs.”

Some witnesses said the group was staging a party scene for a video titled “Two Tecs and a 50 Shot,” but Mathis-Tate said they were just having some fun in the park.

“He was really, you know, just goofing around, playing like he could rap a little bit,” she said. “He wasn’t no rapper. He was a newcomer just trying to say some lyrics.” He sometimes went by the name “Thugga,” according to family and friends.

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