The man, who asked that his name not be used, was inside a friend's home and immediately thought of his teenage brother when he heard the shots. "I thought my little brother got shot," he said.
He was relieved to see he was wrong but recognized the two victims as his brother's friends. One of the boys was sitting down and the other was leaning on others, he said.
The man said he tried to keep one of the victims conscious, talking with him and pleading with him to stay alert, as he urged others to apply pressure to the wounds.
Paramedics took the older boy to Stroger Hospital with gunshot wounds to the calf and thigh. The younger teen was taken to Comer Children's Hospital with gunshot wounds to the calf and shoulder.
Also at the crime scene later was 52-year-old Kenneth Conner, who heard the gunfire while sitting in his truck. "That's crazy," he said as he looked toward the police officers standing on Clyde. "Two little kids."
His wife was visiting a hair salon, but Conner had wanted to stay nearby out of concern for her safety, he said.
Conner, a former construction worker who retired after an injury, said he grew up nearby at a time when gun violence was rare in the area. "This area has gotten worse in the last seven or eight years," he said.
Residents said shootings are now frequent in the neighborhood. On May 15, a 19-year-old man was injuredby gunfire a block east, in the 7000 block of South Merrill Avenue.
Police took two people of interest into custody after the South Shore shooting, but they were released shortly after.
In a separate South Side shooting Monday night, which police said was not related, someone shot an 18-year-old man in the Park Manor neighborhood.
The shooter approached on foot about 8 p.m. and opened fire in the 300 block of East 69th Street, striking the man in the back, police said.
A relative took the man to St. Bernard Hospital, and he was later transferred to Stroger Hospital in good condition.
asege@tribune.com
Twitter: @AdamSege