Chicago police officials on Monday said a personal dispute was likely the cause of a mass shooting at a South Side park over the weekend that left two men dead and three other people injured.

The shooting, which occurred shortly before 8 p.m. Sunday at Wendell Smith Park in the 9900 block of South Princeton Avenue in the Roseland neighborhood, was one of three separate incidents across the city between Friday afternoon and late Sunday that left five people shot, according to CPD.

All told, 10 people were fatally shot across the city over the weekend, with dozens more wounded by gunfire.

Addressing reporters at a Juneteenth celebration in the nearby Pullman neighborhood, interim CPD Superintendent Fred Waller said that a personal conflict was the likely spark of Sunday’s shooting.

“As more people are out during the summertime, we know that some of those people have people who are against them and have conflicts with some of those people, and that’s what happened. Somebody came by and just opened up fire on the whole group,” Waller said, adding that it remained unclear who were the intended targets of the shooting.

One of the victims was 32-year-old Brian Ross, who lived in the Roseland neighborhood, according to the medical examiner’s office and county court records. His uncle, Jonathan, described Ross as a good person, nephew and father.

“He was always there for his kids,” his uncle said.

The gathering in the park was like a fair, filled with kids and good food, his uncle said. “It would’ve been a peaceful day.”

Cook County court records suggest Ross was previously a target of gun violence.

In 2021, he was arrested after CPD officers saw him carrying a pistol while in a North Side park, authorities said. According to his arrest report, Ross told the officers that he had been shot three times in the past and he carried the gun for his own protection. He was paroled in September, court records show.

The identity of the other man killed was not yet released Monday afternoon.

Reporters asked Mayor Brandon Johnson about the weekend violence Monday.

“Look, I knew what I was inheriting when I became the mayor of the city of Chicago. I knew it,” Johnson said at a separate event. “We all have known the pain of trauma and disinvestment and the impact that that has had in communities that have experienced torture, redlining, school closures, the destruction of public housing. You see where I’m going.”

The mayor said he still recalls the violent Chicago of the 1990s and noted he still is raising children in the city. He said information he has shows 60% of the violence in Chicago occurs in just 6% of the city.

“It resonates all over the city of Chicago though, but I’ll just, if I can, though, for a second. We all are part of those families,” Johnson told reporters. “I would respectfully ask you not to separate us from one another. Do you think that because someone is grieving that we’re not grieving in this room?”

Daryl Tall and his family live on the same street as the park. Tall said the gathering on Sunday was a family event that included a bouncy house, a DJ and grilling. Tall said he was walking inside his home when he heard multiple rounds of gunshots.

“As soon as I heard it, I thought to myself, ‘All those kids,’” Tall said. “When I came out, nothing but chaos. It was horrible, seeing people lying on the ground.”

Tall said the party was the first “old-school Sunday” in about two years that happened to coincide with Father’s Day. It was an annual neighborhood party that he said started in the early 2000s.

The neighborhood is pretty safe and quiet, Tall said. People only drive through this area if they live on the street, he said.

“This is crazy because (the neighborhood is) all old folks and kids,” he said.

Thomas Brown, who has lived in the Roseland neighborhood for more than 30 years, wasn’t at the event but saw videos from a doorbell camera. His family lives in a house directly facing the east side of the park.

“You want to enjoy the summer and not deal with the violence,” Brown said. “When violence is right in front of your door, it makes you want to get out.”