Another Violent Tuesday (3)

Demetrius Pitts
30 years old
Pitts was shot in the chest at about 9:23 p.m. on the 300 block of South Kildare Avenue. He was pronounced dead at 11:50 p.m. last night at Stroger Hospital. No further information is available.



Tanaja Stokes
8 years old
Two young girls playing jump-rope were shot last night when two people rode up on bikes and opened fire in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side. Tanaja was shot in the head and died within an hour. Her 5-year-old cousin Ariana Jones was also shot in the head and was in critical condition at Advocate Christ Medical Center this morning. The girls' grandfather, Robert Wise, said he was in front of the family home in the 10700 block of South Indiana when he saw two guys roll up on bicycles at about 8 p.m. Wise said he and a second cousin of the girls ran to protect the girls, but it was too late. Officials are investigating whether a fight about 20 minutes earlier might have led to the shooting. The fight involved three teens -- two girls and a boy. A group of about 20 teens surrounded the fighting youths, screaming, holding back the boys, calling each other names. Once the teens stopped fighting, six girls including the one who fought left the scene in a white four-door car. About 10 minutes later, six gunshots rang out to the south on Indiana. The six girls who had left in the car were seen unhurt near the scene.



Parnell Shumate
37 years old
Shumate was shot and killed at about 4:40 p.m. in a parking lot in the 1200 block of South Pulaski Road in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side this afternoon. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at 5:08 p.m. at Stroger Hospital. Police were looking for a Chevrolet HHR truck with four occupants that may have been involved in the shooting. At least one of them was possibly the shooter.