O Block: 4 wounded in Chicago shooting near notoriously violent stretch made famous by rappers

Four people were wounded in a shooting Wednesday evening near “O Block,” a notoriously violent block-long stretch on the South Side that includes the sprawling Parkway Gardens apartment complex.

Police said the shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. in the 6300 block of South Calumet Avenue in Grand Crossing, around the corner from the 6400 block of South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, known as “O Block.” An officer-in-distress call was broadcast over police radios after a large crowd gathered.

A 16-year-old boy, shot in the chest, was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, officials said.

Three other arrived at the hospital in good condition. Two men, 39 and 42, had suffered leg wounds, and a 22-year-old man suffered a graze wound, police said.

Another shooting happened in the same area last July 4. Five people were shot shortly after midnight in the 6500 block of King Drive in the same apartment complex and a couple of blocks south of Wednesday’s shooting.

“O Block,” once the home of former first lady Michelle Obama, has become a staple of Chicago drill music and has also counted rappers Chief Keef and King Von as residents. King Von, whose real name was Dayvon Bennett, named his debut album “Welcome to O’Block” and was memorialized in a mural near Parkway Gardens after he was fatally shot in Atlanta in 2020.

Gang members named the block for 20-year-old Odee Perry, who was gunned down just around the corner on a summer night in 2011. Police sources said he was killed by a 17-year-old female gang assassin named Gakirah Barnes, who was later killed amid a series of retaliatory shootings in 2014.

Police records show the investigation into Barnes’ death was closed after Cook County prosecutors rejected charges against Bennett, who’d been their prime suspect.

Contributing: Frank Main