A wild shoot-out exposed the lack of license plate readers at O’Hare Airport, where gunmen fled in cars after wounding a self-proclaimed rapper, police sources say.
“How is it that we don’t have those readers at the airport when we have them all over the city?” a police supervisor said, adding that such readers could have helped in the investigation.
Nearly 60 shell casings were retrieved outside Terminal 2 after two rappers from Austin and their West Side companions deboarded a Spirit Airlines flight and got into a violent argument in baggage claim, leading to the shooting at 12:10 a.m. Wednesday.
Chicago police officials haven’t announced a motive for the attack in the arrivals area on the lower level. But they know two separate groups stepped off a flight from Houston and made their way to baggage claim, where the quarrel between the rappers erupted, according to a police report and sources.
Screaming expletives and throwing punches, the brawl escalated and moved into a vestibule before spilling into the street outside.
After someone in the melee called a “gun car,” its occupants jumped out and began firing an AK-47-type rifle and a 9mm gun at people on the sidewalk, a police source said.
“Multiple male offenders began to open fire at each other,’’ read to the police report, which showed evidence technicians recovered 57 shell casings.
The groups, which one witness said “scattered,” sped away in several dark-colored or tan vehicles, the report said.
Meanwhile, paramedics tended to one of the rappers, who was shot twice in both legs. He was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was recovering and said to be in good condition.
The 25-year-old man has been arrested twice since 2021 on felony gun possession charges, court records show.
Detectives interviewed someone after the attack, but no one was in custody Thursday.
