State police said the fatal shooting of a woman in a van on Lake Shore Drive early Friday stemmed from “gang or drug activity” and there was no threat to the general public.

 

Michelle Smith, 32, was shot to death when another van drove up alongside of it and someone inside opened fire, police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said.

 

Responding to a call of a car crash, police discovered a woman shot inside a van in the southbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive near I-55, said police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro.

 

Illinois State police said someone in another van opened fire on the van, riddling it with bullets.

 

Another female passenger in the van was not injured, state police said.

 

Smith, of the 5000 block of South Paulina Street, was pronounced dead on the scene at 5:03 a.m., the medical examiner’s office said.

 

State police said the two women were coming from a location on the North Side of Chicago when the shooting occurred, and the shooting was an isolated incident, related to gang or drug activity.

 

As a result of the fatal shooting, authorities closed off southbound lanes on the Lake Shore Drive ramp leading to the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) about 4:20 a.m., state police said. State police did not know when the ramp would reopen and the closure was leading to long traffic backups on Lake Shore Drive Friday morning.

 

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