CHICAGO -- A nephew of Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade was one of 13 men shot -- two fatally -- during a violent six-hour stretch in Chicago, another indication that violence is on the rise in the nation's third-largest city.
A spokesperson for Wade, a Chicago native, confirmed that his nephew was one of those injured in a Thursday shooting at a convenience store. The spokesperson declined to confirm the nephew's name or condition. Wade says his nephew remains hospitalized, but is doing well. His nephew was expected to undergo surgery Friday.
Wade, who said he was playing with his nephew in mind, scored 30 points in the Heat's 113-101 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
"You never expect to a get a call like that," Wade said after the game. "Something I always focus on with my foundation when I go back to Chicago is to do what I can to stop the violence. To have one of your own family members be involved in it, it hurts. I just thank God that he's healthy. ... Thank God he's going to get another chance."
Wade's nephew was one of six males shot at a store on Chicago's South Side at about 6 p.m. Thursday by hooded men who police said fled the scene in an SUV. One man was dead at the scene and four others -- ranging in age from 16 to 24 -- were hospitalized in critical condition. The Cook County medical examiner's office identified the slain man as Shawndell Harris, 22.
Wade said he was especially close to his nephew because, as the son of his oldest sister, he made Wade an uncle for the first time when he was just nine years old.
"My family tried to keep me out of it while I was playing the game (but now) I'm going to try to get some more information," Wade said. "It's troubling, and that's why not only me, but so many others in the community, try to do what we can to make sure that we can make a change."
The news of the shooting involving Wade's nephew comes one week after Heat players including Wade and LeBron James spoke out about last month's shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin. A neighborhood watch volunteer fatally shot the 17-year-old in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, Fla. No arrest has been made; the volunteer has claimed self-defense.
Of the Martin shooting, Wade said, "As a father, this hits home."
In Chicago, there were three other shootings during Thursday's stretch of violence, police said.
• Shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, David Gully, 31, was fatally shot in the head across the street from his South Side home, police said. Suspects have been questioned and several weapons have been recovered, police said.
• At about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, four people standing in a parking lot on Chicago's West Side were wounded when a gunman fired at them from a moving vehicle, police said.
• Two other men were wounded in separate shootings on the South Side -- one in the leg and one in the buttocks.
The shootings are part of a larger uptick in violence across the city this year. From Jan. 1 to March 29 of this year, there were 474 shootings, 101 of them fatal, according to the Chicago Police Department. During the same time period last year, there were 346 shootings, 55 fatal.
Tio Hardiman, director of the anti-violence group CeaseFire, said he believes clashes are increasing because the city is dealing with violence as a crime problem and not as a public health epidemic.
"You cannot arrest your way out of this problem," Hardiman said. "You have to meet people where they are and change the way they think."
Information from ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst and The Associated Press was used in this report.