Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Little Gift From Your Friendly Neighborhood Shooters



According to a reader, one of the bullets shot near Jewel went through the window of the home of an older couple, who were home at the time [shown in the photos above].

"The bullet came in through the window on the 8th floor, hit the ceiling, broke into 2 pieces and went their separate ways. One piece was lodged in the wall and the other piece went through the wall, hit the front door and bounced back into the living room. I'm not going to speculate about the bullet being a hollow-pointed one (why else split into 2 pieces, though?), but it was a .45 caliber bullet."


Another reader gives his account of the shooting.  "There were at least 50 pedestrians who can rightfully claim to be eyewitness, but here is my account:

I was SB on Broadway, making a left onto EB Montrose. Since that's such a small capacity lane, I was the first car stopped at a red light on Sheridan. That's when I first heard a shot, but was unable to tell the direction. I saw a man heading WB on the NB side of the street, but something about the way he was running suggest to me that he was getting clear of the area.

It was approx. 15 seconds before a shooter materialized, from the S side of Montrose, in front of Jewel/Pensacola. He ran out to the centerline, fired 4 shots East in rapid succession, and although I couldn't see his target, I assumed it was a car. His four shots sounded the same as the first (to my ear) so I'd guess the first was from a similar handgun, or that shot was also his.

I heard no screams or tires squealing, or glass breaking. The shooter returned to the sidewalk S of Montrose, and he headed West. He fled west, but did not run at an all-out clip, and made no attempt to conceal or lose his weapon.

He was a dark complected African-American teen, looking terrified, and wore a black hoody and dark pants, probably black jeans. Clothes were loose-fitting, giving him the appearance of being small framed. I don't know weapons, but the handgun seemed outsized for him, perhaps a .45?

I believe he continued west, but I'm unsure of that.

As I was too smart to hit him with my car, but too dumb to work my phone's camera quickly enough, I hope that one of the countless other witnesses to this crime were able to assist police. I didn't call, as I saw so many other phones in use right afterwards, but when I approached a policewoman later, she politely thanked me, but seemed to have sufficient eyewitnesses already.

I know they were soon busy on 4500 Clifton, and are focusing on 4300 Hazel even now, hours later.

He ran past a panicked woman shielding a stroller, and his gaze was focused N and behind him."

Update:  Furthering the "focusing on Clifton and Hazel" part of the account, we received an email from a reader telling us:

"I just got a call from a neighbor saying there were police officers climbing into our backyard.  Sure enough, there were three officers scouring our yard.  I went down and found out they were looking for several gang members who were shooting off their guns in the neighborhood.  The police followed them to the 4426 N. Clifton gangway for the Voice of the People building next door. They got away because the back gate was propped open with a brick, probably from the work crew that was hired with our TIF money to rehab that building.  While most of tenants in that building are good neighbors, there are two units on that side that harbor gang members.  This is insane!"

16 comments:

  1. that's some good shooting, since I'd assume that the target was probably level with the shooter.

    Why can't these guys learn how to shoot?

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  2. I agree. For the small chance that this thug can read, please hear me out...

    Nice Shot IDIOT! Unless Herb and Martha in the penthouse were throwing GD signs your way than you are pathetic. Go back to school, get your GED. Take advantage of one of the numerous social programs set up to help young thugs like yourself. Stay away from women for a LONG time. Do not procreate. Study hard, get a job, and be a productive member of society. And for the love of god never, ever, ever, pick up a gun again.

    That is all.

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  3. I'd settle for the piece of shit getting kicked out of his apartment and having to move out of our neighborhood. Jail is almost too much to hope for.

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  4. And regarding 4426 N Racine, wasn't there a car registered to a resident that was shot up last week? VOTP, please go out of business.

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  5. Regrettably, some gang members in fact have excellent "skills." This shooter? Not so much.

    Gang members who have military training are highly skilled and are especially threatening to law enforcement.

    Anyone have any more info on this recent series? It's got all the earmarks of a family feud.

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  6. Chipster,

    you forgot to add one thing to your rant. Vasectomy. Lead vasectomy.

    Provided by another banger firing a weapon and then said shooter can provide himself with a lead vasectomy.

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  7. What was that Barbra Streisand song from Yentl? Something like 'Papa, can you hear me?'

    I say "HELEN, can you hear me?"

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  8. It's awful what is going on in the neighborhood. Just this summer (July) I watched three guys run down the street at Montrose and Broadway with beer bottles, and threw them at pick up truck. It looks like gang activity is really starting to increase in a big way. It's actually kind of scary.

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  9. I would have ran him over at this point. Just gun it and crush him with the car.

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  10. Do not procreate. Couldn't have said it better Chip. I value my dogs more than these low lifes.

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  11. I'm glad I wasn't shopping at Jewel...or in an 8th floor apartment at the scene. Any bullet can fragment on impact, so there is no way to be sure if it was a hollow point or not. However, as a general rule, hollow points do not travel as far as non hollow points or jacketed ammunition. hollow points are designed to mushroom on impact. It is for this reason that hollow points are the preferred ammunition for self-defense. Since this shot was not on target, it probably didn't hit anything until it broke the glass and hit the wall. If it had hit anything, it would have likely not made it as far.

    Aside from my dream of Wyatt Earp coming back to live and showing Chicago how to deal with gangs, I suppose I can hope that they do use hollow points. A regular or jacketed round can travel through a person and continue with enough velocity to hit someone else. A hollow point will deform after its first impact

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  12. We should be VERY angry.
    By we, I mean everyone, and not just the people north of the Montrose who deal with this day in and day out.

    This is the result of a community that has been polarized for too long and led to look the other way on completely unacceptable behavior in the name of social justice. This type of incident has been predicted by concerned Uptowners, but those concerns have by and large fallen on certain deaf ears.

    The fact the bullets are flying through the windows of high rises should be a wake up call (again) that the solution requires zero tolerance from everyone and proactive action now and continually.

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  13. It sounds like a ricochet bullet. The large size of the bullet hole is consistent with this hypothesis (I think).

    On the other hand, he might not have been aiming at anything. Those shots might have been only warning shots. Last year, I video recorded a thug firing about 6 obvious warning shots near a group of people. It was 3:40 AM, and he was aiming West on Lawrence, but away from the fleeing youths. The shooting occurred at Kenmore and Lawrence, with noone hit. Unfortunately, the camera only caught the shooter's hands and gun, as well as the fleeing youths, and the quality of the video was not particularly good. My point is that it appears that shooters oftentimes only try to warn their targets. The bullets that hit the window might have been the result of the shooter aiming into the air with his shots.

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  14. That elderly couple should just move to Lincoln Park if they don't like bullets flying through their window.

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