3 dead, 2 wounded in pair of early morning shootings in Chicago

After a few quiet nights, gun violence returned to Chicago's cold streets early Saturday morning with three people killed by gunshots and one person left with tears, blood-stained clothing and a friend's body.

Laverne Smith stood crying at one end of a vacant lot in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side early this morning while her friend, close like a brother, lay covered by a white sheet behind a maroon van at the other end.

Ronnie Chambers, 33, no address available, had been in the driver's seat of the van, which had just arrived in the 1100 block of South Mozart Street when one person, probably two, opened fire, police said. Chambers, identified by family members at the scene and later by police, died at the scene, in Smith's arms.

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