A gunman opened fire just yards from where NBC’s Chicago Fire television show was filming on Chicago’s West Side this afternoon, according to law enforcement and industry sources. No injuries were reported, but a film industry source said the “full cast” was on-scene, and three cameras were rolling when the gunfire broke out around 1:55 p.m.
The hit show’s crew was filming exterior shots at A.A. Rayner and Son’s Funeral Home, 5911 West Madison, when a man began shooting from the opposite corner, a source said.
Law enforcement officers were already on the scene to provide security for the film set, and one of them called out shots fired on the local police radio channel. Listen:
The gunman, a Black male with braids, walked out of an alley and “fired several shots at people” while standing on the northwest corner of Madison and Mason, according to the cop.
He said the shooter jumped into a black SUV and fled through an alley after firing. It’s not clear who the “people” were that the officer saw the gunman firing toward.
A CPD spokesperson confirmed that a man “shot at a group of people standing in the 5900 block of West Madison” and fled in a dark SUV.
“It happened mid-take,” a film industry source said. “No one was injured on set, but a bullet did ricochet off some equipment.”
The Chicago Police Department had at least six marked cars on the scene for security, according to the source, but “it happened right in front of them all.”
Filming in Chicago, a Twitter account that tracks the city’s film activity, reported Chicago Fire production was halted for the day after Wednesday’s shooting.
Wednesday’s shooting was the latest scare for Chicago’s film community.
Earlier in the summer, bullets from a rolling gun battle flew into the Cinespace Chicago Film Studios on the West Side and damaged trailers used by the Chicago Med television series. No injuries were reported and police did not believe the show or the studio were the intended targets.
In the South Loop last month, a man reportedly lit an object and threw it toward the set where Justified was filming. Police said the “object did not explode and no injuries were reported.”
Days later, top Chicago police executives ordered several neighborhood patrol districts to send some of their cars to secure movie sets across the city, CWBChicago reported.
At the time, a CPD source said the district resources were being diverted largely because the production companies had been unable to find enough off-duty cops to handle the work.
The city requires “police supervision” for some filming activities. That supervision usually comes through a city program that lets studios hire uniformed cops on their days off. But, the source said, fewer cops are volunteering, putting productions in a bind.
Area Four detectives are investigating Wednesday’s incident, police said.
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