‘I arrived a few minutes too late,’ says doctor who tried to save international student killed in Hyde Park

Shaoxiong “Dennis” Zheng was shot in a neighborhood of doctors, minutes away from a trauma center. But even the quick response of one of those doctors wasn’t enough to save Zheng’s life.

The internist encountered 24-year-old Zheng, a recent University of Chicago graduate Tuesday in Hyde Park, moments after someone fired fatal shots at Zheng, according to Chicago police and the doctor.

“I think I arrived a few minutes too late to save him,” said the doctor, who spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity because he lives nearby. “It all happened pretty fast. I did maybe 30 chest compressions and the paramedics were already here.”

Zheng graduated from the university with a master’s degree in statistics this year after attending the University of Hong Kong for his undergraduate education, according to his LinkedIn page.

Just before Zheng was killed, two witnesses said they saw a man in a mask and a black hooded sweatshirt get out of a black sports car in the 900 block of East 54th Place around 2 p.m. Tuesday, the report said.

Zheng was walking on the sidewalk when the masked man approached him. The witnesses said there was a brief struggle before the gunman shot him in the chest, ran back to his car and drove away.

Not long after, one of the other witnesses ran up to the doctor’s car as he was parking in his garage around 2 p.m. — a time that on any other day, he said, he would not have been home. But on Tuesday, he had to let a construction crew into his home to begin work on a bathroom remodel. He still had his stethoscope around his neck as he followed the other man over to where Zheng lay on the ground, his gray hooded sweatshirt and the T-shirt underneath soaked in blood.

The internist said the other witness didn’t seek him out because of his medical training — he was just looking for anyone who might be able to help.

“He was totally unconscious. He didn’t have a pulse, he wasn’t breathing,” the doctor said. “As I started chest compressions I could hear sirens already. Time was flying. I only did maybe 30 compressions. When they arrived, I told them I couldn’t find a pulse. I told them I didn’t think he was alive.”

Zheng was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 2:13 p.m.

The University of Chicago Tuesday confirmed that Zheng was a recent graduate and said it was a “deeply painful day for our community and our city.”

Paul Alivisatos, the school president, said in a video message Wednesday that Zheng was killed “in the course of a robbery” and that the community would gather soon “to remember him and to honor his life.”

University staff mentioned another Hyde Park shooting near the university’s Polsky Center and Harper Court. Though shots were fired, no one was injured, the statement read.

“Our city struggles with many of the same issues of violence that afflict all large cities in the U.S. Unless we can meet that challenge together, our communities will not truly feel safe,” their statement said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in her own statement acknowledged the “brazen acts of gun violence in broad daylight” in Hyde Park but also recognized the 50 people shot during the past weekend, throughout the city.

“We know the violence that has occurred in neighborhoods this week is a microcosm of what’s been happening week after week in our communities,” Preckwinkle said. “We need an immediate and urgent response to the violence as well as a long-term plan to address those root causes of violence.”

According to Preckwinkle, there have been 735 homicides in Chicago this year, nearly 100 more than by the same time last year. And Zheng is not the first University of Chicago student to succumb to gun violence this year.

Yiran Fan, a promising 30-year-old graduate student, died during a random shooting spree in January. He was posthumously awarded a Ph.D. in financial economics in June.

Max Lewis, a 20-year-old student who was hit by a stray bullet while sitting on a Green Line train in July, died three days later, officials said. Lewis double majored in economics and computer science and was president of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.

University officials said they “have been in close contact with Mayor (Lori) Lightfoot, Chicago Police Department Superintendent (David) Brown and other members of the Mayor’s team, along with local aldermen,” regarding public safety strategies for Hyde Park and nearby communities.

The doctor said Hyde Park has always been a “quiet, nice, safe neighborhood.” His neighbors are all fellow doctors and professors, he said. He worries a

bout his family, given what he sees as a recent spike in criminal activity.

“It’s tragic. He looked so young. I thought he was in his teens but later I found out he was 24. That’s still just a kid,” said the doctor. “And I think of my kids. They walk to school. This is supposed to be a safe neighborhood. Or, it was, until Tuesday.”

Chicago Tribune reporters Paige Fry and Jeremy Gorner contributed.