A woman and her daughter were shot as more than a dozen young men threw bricks through the windows of their Far South Side home and tried to force their way in Thursday night, Chicago police said.



The mother, 41, had tried to block the group at the gate of the home, then tried to bar them from the front door when she was shot, according to police and witnesses.



"That's when you heard it. Pow, pow, pow," said Ruthie Patterson, a relative who had just arrived in the 600 block of East 92nd Place around 5:50 p.m. "I laid down. There were at least 30 shots."



The mother was shot in the neck and the daughter, 19, suffered three wounds to her torso and one to the leg, police said. They were both taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, police said.



The incident started when "about 15" young men showed up at the home, Patterson said. The mother began to argue with them, then blocked the gates of her house so they couldn't get through.



One of them told her, "Let's box," Patterson said. "Dude picked up a brick and busted the windows."



A few of the men tried to jump through the broken windows while the mother hurried to block the front door, she said.



Patterson said she entered the house after the gunfire and the men had fled. She ran toward the mother, realizing she had been shot near her chin, and grabbed a towel and urged her to sit down.