Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Violence at Sheridan and Lawrence Tonight

A reader writes in:
"I was coming home from work when I witnessed another act of violence in the middle of the intersection of Sheridan and Lawrence, around 7:30 PM. A group of about a dozen men were hanging out on the northwest corner, approximately 4800 N on Sheridan Rd.
A silver van pulled up, stopped and suddenly the group of 12 became a group of 20 to 25 men. They started attacking the van, throwing garbage bins, bottles and who knows what else. The van doors opened up and the group started scattering westbound towards the el and then north. It appeared to be some kind of a gang conflict.

Needless to say, traffic was stopped in all directions. The cars who were in front of me and behind started to back up to try to get out of the way. I was stuck in the middle of a scene of chaos and all I could do was keep the doors locked and call 911. The call taker said that they had just received several calls about this. I was terrified, and I can't imagine what it was like for the pedestrians on the street. Now I've seen it in person, not just on the news.

And another account of tonight's craziness:

"I was just at JJ Peppers at Lawrence & Sheridan and there was a fight in the alley just west of the store after I walked in.  They were throwing bottles & boxing. I decided to wait inside for a minute.

All of the sudden the guys came running back (roughly 15 black males between the ages of 15-25) and started yelling about a gang coming around the corner.  I was too shaken up to remember what they said. A grey van turned on Lawrence from Sheridan and began to throw bottles and pulled out a gun. I saw the gun, but heard no shots (although 2 people outside said they had).

I called the police and waited inside. Roughly 5 cars came in a minute or two. They did not get out of the car and do anything while I was there. I walked past them and pointed out the guys. I thought it was safe to walk @ my house at 7 in the evening."

Update:  A reader writes:  "At around 10:45/11pm, my roommate was walking to our apartment eastbound from the Wilson Red Line, when he saw/heard about 5 shots fired on the intersection of Wilson and Kenmore.  One guy was hit, and went down. A bunch of others scattered away."

11 comments:

  1. The summer has just begun. As always.... we will not hear a peep from Shiller nor Mary Ann Smith as this is a problem that straddles both wards.

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  2. I believe Shiller's office would ask you to simply stop complaining. I mean, what gives normal citizen's the right to complain? Bad apples!

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  3. I missed this by 20 minutes.

    Again, it's tough to imagine a grown man (me) thinking twice about walking down the street on a spring day, let alone a Mom with a baby.

    A similar thing of course happened last year, and I commented how the gang disappeared 'like roaches' when the police showed up. Someone commented that this was 'not a nice or PC thing to say!'
    Sorry, but when a gang of criminals put innocent people in danger, they don't deserve 'nice' descriptions.

    The bigger issue for me, is how there is no apparent 'leader' (Alderman) in Uptown, willing to fight to end this nonsense.

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  4. FYI - some sort of fisticuffs were afoot at Wilson/Broadway. Shots fired, etc around 10:30.

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  5. So what are the Aldermen to do? We've all been taught to tolerate bad behaviors and to not judge so when we get worse behaviors, why are we surprised?

    The police have SUVs now because they can't do much either. The SUVs were purchased so as to scare the gangbangers. Everything is screwed up.

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  6. 4900 block of Broadway had a "fracas" today about 3:45.

    I'm not sure what was going on as I just kept moving. My guess is some bangers saw another banger and pulled him off a bus, but I might be wrong. A bus was involved.

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  7. Since the uptown rapper knows everyone from Lawerence, why don't he tell them idiots to cut it out?

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  8. where are the police? just park them there.

    after the lakefront violence on Monday, I was bike riding during the day and North Ave beach was crawling with cops, unmarked cars, and paddy wagons just sitting there hanging out in the parking lot. god forbid they do this in oh say one of the most crime laden areas of the north side?

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  9. I've been lying low since I got back in town in April. I was by that intersection on Sunday and tension is palpable there. Why can't the police make that corner a high intensity spot for them to concentrate on? Will it take a bystander being killed or wounded?

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  10. I had just finished crossing the street and was standing in front of S&L Grill went I personally witnessed this entire situation. It still turns my stomach thinking about it. I'm brand new to the neighborhood and don't feel safe AT ALL.

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