Cortez Hall Dies After Austin Shooting in Chicago

Teen dies days after shooting near West Quincy Street barbecue

CHICAGO — Cortez Hall, a 16-year-old Austin High School student, has died after being shot alongside his 18-year-old brother and another teenager following a barbecue in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, authorities said. Hall died at 10:32 p.m. Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and a Chicago police report.

The shooting happened about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 18 after the three teenagers left a front-yard barbecue in the 5500 block of West Quincy Street, police said. The group had walked west to the 200 block of South Central Avenue when two vehicles stopped just east of them.

Four attackers got out of the vehicles and began firing, according to the police report. The shooters then fled north on Central Avenue. No arrests have been reported.

Hall was struck in the chest, shoulder and right leg, police said. His older brother was shot in the right side. Both siblings were initially listed in critical condition at Mount Sinai Hospital after the attack.

A third victim, also 16, was found by responding officers with a graze wound to his arm. He declined medical treatment, according to police.

Medical examiner to determine official cause of death

The Cook County medical examiner’s office said an autopsy for Hall was scheduled. Its findings are expected to formally determine the cause and manner of his death.

The death turns the Austin shooting into a fatal violence investigation involving teenagers who had attended a neighborhood gathering shortly before the gunfire. The case also underscores the continuing risk of retaliatory or targeted shootings that can unfold rapidly after social events, although police have not publicly identified a motive or said whether the victims knew the gunmen.

Chicago police detectives are investigating the shooting. Authorities have not released descriptions of the four assailants or the two vehicles, and no one was in custody as of the latest report.