Chicago police: Woman with gunshot wound dies after being pulled from Austin apartment fire

CHICAGO (WLS) — A woman was found shot to death after an apartment fire in the Austin neighborhood Friday morning, Chicago police said.

Authorities responded at about 2:16 a.m. to the fire in the 200-block of South Lavergne Avenue.

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A 57-year-old woman was found inside an apartment and was transported to Stroger Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The woman had suffered a gunshot wound to the leg, police said.

A neighbor who lived right underneath the woman said they were very good friends.

“I heard some noise and I knocked on the ceiling to let me know if she was OK because that was our signal,” she said. “I heard something knock back like three times and so I called her and I texted her and she didn’t respond.”

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The neighbor said the victim was a mother and grandmother.

Another neighbor next door rushed out of her building after smelling the smoke.

“I woke up to smoke coming from under the floor under the radiator board and it smelled plastic and I went through the whole house to see what was burning,” resident Stacey Adams said. “When I went outside. I looked outside from a window. I seen the smoke next door. The flames coming from next door on the third floor.”

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Police said they are conducting a death investigation. No one else was injured in the fire.

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