Chicago’s acting top cop told reporters Tuesday that police think a mass shooting at a gathering in Washington Park over the weekend was “somewhat targeted” and likely involved multiple shooters and an exchange of gunfire.As city officials announced the opening of a resource center for those a ffected by violence, interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller also alluded to the potential use of a “switch,” a small device that turns a semiautomatic pistol into a machine gun.“It happens in a matter of seconds, but we also know that there probably was some return fire also, so some people in the crowd [were] probably armed,” Waller said, standing alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson and other city leaders at the Washington Park Refectory.The shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Saturday as former residents of the Robert Taylor Homes gathered for a reunion on the eastern edge of the park in the 5400 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to police and a victim of the attack.Chicago Park District Supt. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said the police were “working to close the park and disperse individuals” when the gunfire began about half an hour after the park was supposed to close.Rontonio Guterz, 35, was killed, and 14 others were wounded in Chicago’s largest mass shooting this year. A piece of police tape hangs on a Washington Park sign after a mass shooting late Saturday left a man dead and 14 other people wounded.Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times A police report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times says two gunmen wearing ski masks opened fire, and someone at the gathering shot back.At least 36 shell casings were found on Cottage Grove and in the park, including casings from a rifle, according to the report, which Waller said indicates there was “more than just one offender.” A weapon was also recovered.He said investigators have obtained “some videos tracking vehicles” and were “canvassing the scene” for all types of footage.Crystal, who declined to share her last name out of fear for her safety, walked into a victim services gathering Tuesday afternoon on crutches.Bandages covered her knees and elbows where she scraped them while diving for cover from the gunfire at the picnic she's attended for decades. “You’re used to being in a certain setting with certain people, and you’re used to it being peaceful,” she said. “Never did I expect something like this to happen.”Crystal explained she hasn’t slept much and is hesitant to attend another picnic. It was the second time in as many months she’s had to “hit the deck” due to gunfire, she said.Next year, she said she hopes picnic organizers move the event to an undisclosed location.“I don’t think there’s much anybody can do; people just need to get their lives right with God,” she said. “It’s like I’m in a war, but I never joined the military.”William Edwards, field director for local violence interrupter group Acclivus, said he and others had been in the area Saturday. The work, he said, has been made more difficult by people posting their locations on social media, which can make them potential targets for violence. William Edwards, field director for local violence interrupter group Acclivus, attends a Victims Crisis Resource Event at 5401 S. Wentworth Ave. Tuesday.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) told reporters she drove by the park around 8 p.m. and thought about reporting the cars she saw parked on the grass. But she said she knows the “effects of calling the police prematurely, so I didn’t call.“They were just out there hanging, listening to music. They were eating. You saw kids out there. Like it was a good time. My only beef was: Get off the grass," Taylor said. "And so hindsight being 20/20, people should be able to hang out at the park. That's not the issue. The issue is when you got some idiot who decides to go up and shoot in a crowd.”Mental health services, crisis support and help applying for victim compensation will be available at the Washington Park field house at 5531 S. King Drive from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Waller said the police department’s victim services team was canvassing the area Tuesday to spread word about the services, which are open to the public regardless of whether someone was involved in the most recent shooting. Related Chicago’s biggest mass shooting this year sees 1 killed, 14 hurt in Washington Park Man killed in Chicago’s largest mass shooting of 2026 was outgoing, ‘loved everybody,’ his sister says ...read more read less