CHICAGO — Michael Lemon woke up in his home early on the July 4 holiday to the sound of what he thought were firecrackers. Instead, he found his mother, brother and cousins bloodied and bullet holes in the front windows.

“Ran out my room, seen my little brother bleeding. I just seen bloodshed. Once I saw blood, I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Took an innocent woman’s life, took two innocent women’s lives… Chicago ain’t got no remorse.”

Three children in the Grand Crossing home were critically injured and two women were killed when gunmen got out of cars in the 7100 block of South Woodlawn Avenue and sprayed the house with bullets, Chicago police said.

Officers responded to calls and a technology alert of shots fired in at around 6:15 a.m., CPD said, and found five victims with gunshot wounds.

A 42-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene and a 22-year-old woman died at University of Chicago Hospital, police said.

Three boys, aged 5, 7, and 8, were all in critical condition at Comer Children’s Hospital, according to police.

The 42-year-old was Lemon’s mother, Nakeeshia Strong, a “loving, fun person” who raised a big, happy family, he said. Her nickname was Kesha Boo, and she was letting her niece stay in the home. Family identified the other woman who was killed as Capri Edwards.

“All she wanted to do was live for her kids, have fun with her kids, y’all just took that away from her kids,” Lemon said of Strong.

“Y’all don’t get no cool points for coming to shoot up a crib at six o’clock in the morning where nobody in the house gang affiliated, none of that,” Lemon said. His younger brother “wanted to be a football superstar… now he’s got to grow up without his mama.”

Crisis intervention workers milled around the crime scene in drizzling rain Thursday, speaking with neighbors and those gathered nearby, offering victim support and hoping to cool any tensions.

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