Three people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in front of the Green Apple Mini Mart, 1435 N. Sedgwick St., on April 11. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Ted Cox

OLD TOWN — More than 50 people were arrested in police raids Friday throughout the city as the result of an investigation sparked by the shooting of two 12-year-olds and a 66-year-old maintenance man outside an Old Town convenience store last month, police said Saturday.

Standing outside the convenience store in the 1400 block of North Sedgwick Street where the drive-by shooting occurred, Chief Anthony Riccio of the Chicago Police Bureau of Organized Crime said the April 11 shooting was spurred by drug sales in the area and ended up wounding three innocent victims instead of the two gang members who were targeted.

In its aftermath, police launched an investigation that included undercover drug buys and culminated with the raids Friday in the Near North Police District and areas of the South and West sides of the city, Riccio said.

In addition to the arrests, two guns were seized along with more than 260 pounds of heroin in the 2500 block of North Oak Park Avenue and more than 400 pounds of marijuana in the 5200 block of South Sacramento Avenue, Riccio said.

He said police are still looking to arrest more people in connection with the investigation.

Riccio said the raids were purposely timed before the long holiday weekend, typically the start to the bloodiest season in Chicago, to try to let those arrested "spend the weekend in Cook County Jail and keep them off the street."

He said 30 of those arrested had prior felony convictions, and all of those arrested were on the department's "Strategic Subject" list of those police believe are most likely to shoot someone or be shot.

"All of the raids and arrests were timed to remove some of the most violent individuals from our streets during the Memorial Day weekend," Riccio said.

Johnson said the raids send a message "to those who serve as a catalyst of the violence that we will come after you before you can inflict more harm in our communities."

The press conference was attended by a number of officials, including Police Supt. Eddie Johnson and Aldermen Walter Burnett (27th) and Brian Hopkins (2nd).

Burnett cheered the community for helping police in the wake of the April 11 shooting, saying residents' cooperation was important to the investigation.

And Hopkins called the shooting "particularly disturbing" in that it wounded "two 12-year-olds literally on their way to the store to buy candy and a 66-year-old man who worked his entire life as a maintenance man, worked to support his family."

"Their names weren't on the Strategic Subject list. So there is a special measure of outrage when people who are going about their business fall victim to reckless gun violence," Hopkins said.

"This kind of activity doesn't belong in this neighborhood, it doesn't belong in any neighborhood," said Hopkins, whose ward borders Burnett's at the shooting scene.