Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Breaking News: Stabbing On Magnolia (And More)

We hear from readers that there was a stabbing around 7pm on the 4600 block of Magnolia.  Apparently some residents were drinking all day, got into a fight, and someone got stabbed.  The police are everywhere, the area is roped off with blood all over the entrance to the (Carlton?) hotel at 4626 Magnolia.

"Just drove by a serious crime scene on the 4600 block of Magnolia---on the west side of the street, in the front sidewalk of that big stone building. Tons of cops, ambulance with police talking to what I assume to be a victim inside, fire trucks, etc. There was a large pool of blood and a hat strewn on the walkway from the building to the sidewalk. When we drove by again, we saw cop cars in quick pursuit up and down the 4400 block of Racine and then west on Montrose. I hope you have this and more information already, as the scene was red and yellow taped off and looked pretty serious. Hope no innocent bystanders were hurt."

This seems to be followed by a shooting, and car pursuit.  Will update.

Update:  What readers are telling us:

- The stabbing victim is in critical condition and the assailant is in custody.

- Apparently shortly before 8pm, a Pontiac Bonneville with Wisconsin plates drove into the crowd at the scene of the stabbing on Magnolia.  It had children in it, and the car jumped onto the sidewalk and hit a sign.  There were shots fired, possibly by the police, as the car left the scene.  The car was found at Clark and Wilson hooked up to a tow truck.  The driver said he had picked it up on the 4400 block of Malden.

Update 2:  An eyewitness writes in:  "The fight started out near Wilson and Magnolia near 4609. The guy who got stabbed was saying 'Stop bullying me' to the other guy he was in a fight with. The guy started to leave when the other guy exclaimed 'I'm going to call the police'. He then chased after the bully and was stabbed. I was told by a neighbor his throat was slit. The stabber hid near the Magnolia Hotel, where the victim was bleeding. Cops showed up along with an ambulance. The ambulance ended up taking the guy out on a stretcher. He was passed out at the time and looked like he was going to fall off of it.

More police showed up and suddenly a shot broke out and a woman was screaming. That's when the gunfire happened. The stabber allegedly stole a woman's car near Leland and Magnolia with her children in the back seat. Police were drawing weapons when an officer yelled 'Don't shoot; there are kids in the car'. The stabber drove south down the east sidewalk, hitting a parked car along the way and damaging a wooden sign near Aardvark Insurance. He then turned west down Wilson and cops pursued. There are many news cameras out now on the block filming the clean up. What started as a stupid fight turned into a bloody mess."

Update 3:  9:30pm - The stabbing victim is in surgery.  The car was apparently stolen or carjacked, and when the thief was driving away with the car, he turned onto Magnolia and found himself in the middle of a crime scene and much police activity that was there due to the stabbing.  In an effort to elude the police, he drove into several cars, including police cars, and then drove onto the sidewalk.

But wait, there's more!  There was also a large fight/mob scene at Wilson and Broadway shortly before 10pm. Guns were apparently involved and Lakeview Foods, in the Wilson Red Line station, had its windows destroyed.  Police were there very quickly and are pursuing the offenders.

If you have any further information, please put it in the comments.  If you have photos, please send them to us.

32 comments:

  1. I'm not sure what happened on Magnolia but the residents of that building are entering and exiting through the back door in the alley. The people coming in the building are verbally upset with local law enforcement because i heard several people shouting/ complaining about those mother f*&^ing police wanting to lock people up.

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  2. Just before 8 PM...

    The suspect drove past the scene of the crime and a police officer shouted, "there he is." The police pulled their side arms, and police cars attempted to box in the vehicle. My fiance and I hid behind a car (we were out having a "nice walk"). We heard the officers shouting repeatedly at the suspect, "put the car in park." We stood up to walk away from the scene, and be on our way. We did not get far. We were walking south on the east sidewalk when we heard car crunching noises. Apparently the suspect had decided that he did not want to be caught, and was ramming police cars and cars parked on the east side of the street. We turned and quickened our pace when suddenly we heard a loud engine revving sound and shattering car parts. The suspect's car had jumped the blockade and was tearing ass down the sidewalk. The side walk we were standing on! We rushed across the street just in time and the vehicle turned west on Wilson. According to some witnesses on Wilson the suspect vehicle then turned north on Malden. That is all I know. still shaking

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  3. This is all very shocking. I must say I am quite surprised this would happen in our neighborhood.

    Must be more evil condo owners!

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  4. I do have to say that we should all be careful with our curiosity. My husband and I walked down to the crime scene to see what was going on and this is when the drama that Drew was talking about happened. I know that we shouldn't feel like we need to stay in our houses all the time, but that is what we should have done. I was very scared and running crouched down in flip flops is not the best way to spend a Wednesday night.

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  5. How much more has to happen before we take a zero tolerance policy on this crap? I mean tonights circus was over the top, but I fear a sign of times to come if we do not continue to act as a community.

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  6. Side question....anyone think Helen gets on Uptown Update to get her news?

    Nah, she will probably just watch CBS 2 tonight. Can't blame Joe Gray and his "political aspirations" for this one Helen.

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  7. WGN just showed video of the car plowing through the scene...Circus. With that, I am going to lock my doors and windows and go to bed...

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  8. Really, really serious response by the 23rd District tonight. Actually saw beat cops writing an open container ticket on a local public drinking regular before this all happened. Think they must have been preemptively trying to head off warm weather stupidity before this all came to a head.

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  9. Richard and I were in the middle of the street fight in front of the Wilson L at around 10pm. I encourage everyone to stay inside for tonight.

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  10. What happened to the kids that were in the car? Is everyone alright?

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  11. Just now, a bit before 10:30, I was driving east on Montrose, and there were numerous squad cars blocking the eastbound lanes around Magnolia, lights flashing, with some other car being held in by all the police vehicles. I had to drive really carefully around the block in the westbound lanes, so I didn't really get a good look at what was going on. I was struck by the number of police on the scene though. I don't know if it's related to this post.

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  12. You can tell it is warm weather, the criminals are out en masse getting caught up crimes they didn't commit during the cold weather. Bet Helen will not have anything to say about the incidents but that they wer just a small scuffles and fisticuffs.

    James, I have to disagree with you, we should not stay inside. If we stay inside everytime there are crimes in our neighborhood we are giving our neighborhood up to the criminals. The criminal element wants citizens to stay in and leave them alone to conduct their illicit business.

    While I understand your comment is said out of concern for public safety, it also has undertones that citizens should huddle in fear in their homes and not expect a safe neighborhood to enjoy and be able to walk around, enjoy the nice weather and patronize our local business.

    A comment like this makes me begin to doubt what you will do to stop the violence and crime in Uptown if elected as Alderman (believe me I am not going to vote for Shiller!). Staying inside is not the answer.

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  13. I would echo the suggestion of the Capplemaniac for those of you living in DAMN-Dreaded Area Montrose North.

    The cops are out in heavy force from Montrose to Lawrence and Clarendon to Clark.

    There is something in the air out there and it aint love.

    Something in the Air.......

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  14. I saw James out on the street earlier tonight. I don't want to speak for him, but I interpret his comment to mean "stay out of harms way in the short term" while the police work to get a handle on the neighborhood TONIGHT after a series of very troubling events.

    James does not have a track record of running and hiding. At EVERY positive loitering event last year at Malden and Leland, he was there leading by example, speaking to concerned residents, and inviting passersby to come and meet him and discuss their experiences.

    I have not made up my mind on who I will vote for yet, but I am looking forward to learning more about James and the other candidates.

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  15. There were no shots fired. The police did break out a window of the stolen car as it was attempting to flee. The driver and occupants of the stolen car made good their escape. The car was recovered a short time later being towed by Lincoln towing. It was spotted heading north on Clark on the back of a tow truck.

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  16. Oh I forgot something. The stolen vehicle struck 11 parked cars including 5 police cars. Also one officer narrowly missed being struck as well.

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  17. I agree with Cappelman's advice in this situation. Safety first when there are as many cops out in Uptown as last night. Otherwise, I will be out enjoying dinners at local restaurants and hanging out on my balcony like usual.

    As a side note...I find it a little humorous that Lincoln towing appears to have picked up the abandoned vehicle so quickly. Those ba$tards would pick up their mom's parked car at their dad's funeral if there was any hint of a parking violation...

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  18. Can I just say that the UU poster regulars who get the scoop and "real facts" on everything (ie Nadmenny in this post) - I love you guys and truly appreciate your contributions to the dialogue.

    And obviously nothing but love for the moderators of UU. I know we have our struggles, but I am glad that we are a community to works together and wants Uptown to be all it can be. The hoodrats better watch out - I forecast a summer in county for them.

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  19. In Edgewater on Winthrop and Berwyn, on Sept 19th a man stabbed one man in the neck and killed him and stabbed another man in the neck, who survived. He admitted he was on crack, drunk carrying a concealed weapon, knife and he was on parole from "Knife University" aka Statesville.

    For some unknown reason the State Attorney said no problem your free to go and the parolee was re released into the neighborhood.

    He is known to be in Uptown Thorndale and Winthtop and Berwyn. We are trying to track him because our Alderman and Commander don't care. WE are defenseless against this monster.

    If we get this incidents man's name, it would be good to check, who are the stabbers in our area. I can not state the name of our stabber, because there was no arrest but I have his photo et al. The Tribune is following the story. see

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/ct-x-c-chicago-stabbing-block-club-0310-20100310,0,3979971.story

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  20. Stash, James, Hopeless,

    I was out walking around with my girlfriend last night during all of this. Thank God we were over by Chase Park when the circus on Magnolia was occuring and home by 10:30 to miss all the fun at the Wilson El. It was very obvious that something big was going down because there were a lot of thug-ites crawling around Leland, Racine, Magnolia, Malden.

    I am not going to spend my summer hiding from these animals and don't think anyone else should either. Why can't we organize and do something? It seems that there is ONE organized block club in the area. Why can't we have more? Can we have more positive loitering groups? This occured relatively early on a weeknight, how about meeting up around that time? Can we all start carrying our phones and digital cameras? If we as a community are out walking around listening and seeing things happen, maybe we could document it and/or be on the phone to 911 quicker? How about organizing a march?

    Just some ideas, point is, WE need to take action, we are all obviously failing if this happens EVERY SINGLE spring/summer.

    Another thing, No offense to any Shiller bashers, I loath her as much as you, but it gets old. We know, she's useless, can we talk about something that will actually be helpfull for change? Don't we/you actually want a decent neighborhood to live in?

    here is my email, I'm ready to make a difference if any of you are.

    tasteethecat@gmail.com

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  21. Video of the car jacking

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zui7duFbHkY&feature=player_embedded

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  22. Damn that video says it all. Scary stuff! While I no longer live in Uptown (got tired of this crap happening every summer) I feel for my friends who still live there.
    Hope Alderbeast sees this.

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  23. In regards to the video....

    How can there be that many cops and cop cars and the perp still gets away?

    Can anyone answer that? Looks like a gap in CPD training will be plugged based on this incident.

    Just sayin.

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  24. I hope that the teachers and firefighters moving into the Wilson Yard buildings won't be disrupted by these shenanigans.

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  25. I think UptownAction's post says it best. It's time to start a Malden/Leland/Magnolia focused group - Count me in.

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  26. I can't believe Lincoln Towing had the car on a flatbed that fast.

    That has to be a city record.

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  27. When I spend the whole day drinking, I don't have the urge to stab anyone.

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  28. UptownDweller,
    There were CHILDREN in the car. If the driver was alone I'm sure the out come would be different. What would you do???

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  29. Nadmenny,

    I think part of the problem might be perception.

    The cops didn't pull this car over. The driver drove down a street filled with police responding to an earlier incident.

    If this had been a traffic stop I suspect the police would have boxed the car in so the driver couldn't do that.

    Given the woman and child in the car the police responded appropriately. Thankfully, no one was injured by the idiot driver.

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  30. This stuff never happens near where our Alderman lives. Safe to say, maybe it's safer to move north of Lawrence.

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  31. Yes, it is very easy for me to "Monday morning quarterback" it but to see the car go up the street, backup down the street and then go back up the street (sidewalk) with that many CPD officers around looks like a shortcoming in training.

    But kids / innocent bystanders should be considered in hostile situations so I will give the officers at the scene the benefit of the doubt and say they acted appropriately to let the driver go.

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  32. If anyone is interested the stabber is in police custody, and has been identified at the station by witness, and a statement was filed with the states attorney.

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