Thursday, January 6, 2011

Shots Fired, One Person Hit, At Magnolia And Sunnyside

Oh, hell. Many readers are telling us that four shots were fired on the Sunnyside Mall just around 4pm. Police and ambulance are there.

"Multiple shots fired from the vicinity of Magnolia and Sunnyside. Right around 4:00pm. Immediately after, I went out on my deck (overlooking the alley between Malden and Magnolia) and heard what sounded like kids yelling for someone to open the back doors of the property right at the southwest corner of Sunnyside/Magnolia intersection.

I then saw a young woman (I think carrying two very small children) running into that back door as she was trying to escape bullets. I'm sure she was running from them innocently to get out of the way. Not because she was involved in doing the shooting or anything. She looked scared to death. A couple minutes later, a cop car with lights went down the Sunnyside mall toward Magnolia with its lights on and I think I hear a fire truck or ambulance out there too (outside my line of vision)."


















"Just saw an ambulance leave from Magnolia/Sunnyside headed south with sirens blasting. I assume they had someone inside."


"I live at the corner of Magnolia and Sunnyside facing East. After hearing 4-5 gun shots I ran out on to my balcony and witnessed a green Cadillac roll to a stop in front of my building. It had two bullet holes in the driver's side windows. A man jumped out of the car and screamed that he had been shot and I called 911. He was bleeding from his back. There were also a woman and small child in the car. All this violence makes me sick."

Update from Chicago Breaking News: "A 25-year-old man was hospitalized in serious-to-critical condition."

And the helicopters are circling overhead.

25 comments:

  1. Just heard on police scanner that they are recovering shells at Magnolia & Montrose and are closing off the street, more cops on the way...the shooting happened on Magnolia.

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  2. I just heard the same thing. I am on Racine and saw through Broncho Billy a late model mini van possibly a Toyota speed away and head down montrose.

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  3. Scanner update again--shots were fired in front of 4446 N. Magnolia, two cars passing and shooting at each other..and that the police will be making a "notification"--??

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  4. I heard 5 shots. I went to my roof to view magnolia from the west and saw people running and yelling.

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  5. Saw a police car flying down Montrose east at around 4:00 (and trying to dodge around cars that refused to pull over for the lights and sirens.. wtf???). Figured it was (unfortunately) for something like this.

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  6. The entire mall is taped off from the alley just west of Magnolia to the street. Nice sight to see on my way home from work.

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  7. So on Wednesday a P Stone shoots some thugs who stepped in to the wrong hood, and today it looks like retaliation. If this cycle repeats itself another 20 times we will be free of bangers in no time.

    But let's not blame the parents or the community. Blame the inanimate object like Sunnyside Mall. Let's rip the whole thing up. Then the thugs will leave....

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  8. Again, I wish they were better shots so that there would be less bangers and the stolen car they are peobably in can be returned to the rightful owner.....

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  9. So far it doesn't seem as if the police had anyone stationed there at the time, which is pretty disappointing, given how predictable today's episode was.

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  10. Chicago Breaking News says: A 25-year-old man was hospitalized in serious-to-critical condition after being shot in the Uptown neighborhood, officials said.

    The man was shot on the 4500 block of North Magnolia about 4:02 p.m., said Quention Curtis, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.

    The man was outdoors when he was shot in the back, said Chicago Police News Affairs Officer VeeJay Zala. The man was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital where his condition had stabilized, Zala said.

    Police are investigating.

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  11. Here we go again and again. Summer will surely be pure hell unless someone can stop this BS now and once and for all.

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  12. Honestly, this sector of Uptown should be declared a Warzone. I would advise that unless you live there, stay away. The police can't maintain order when these idiots run around shooting each other.

    I am really curious as to whether the residents on those few blocks of Malden and Magnolia have coordinated a plan for a counterattack on their neighborhood.

    For starters, the condo at the Southeast corner of Magnolia and Sunnyside could install high resolution security cameras for not a lot of money (put em up high so they don't get vandalized). Not going to solve the problem, but might be a nice supplement. Broadcast on the Web and let people call 911 when they see signs of trouble.

    With the ZERO leadership in the ward and lack of Police resources, the short term solution is going to have to involve a coordinated effort of community members.

    If reports on UU are correct, several of the CHA buildings there should have sophisticated security cameras installed in the next few weeks. That can't possibly hurt, other than it might push some of this crap onto innocent neighbors' property.

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  13. We were never in that area of Uptown, but recently moved from Broadway/Montrose down to Lakeview, and I must say I continue to hope for everyone living there that something can be done to give your neighborhood back to you. Uptown has much promise, but personally I am safer now than I ever felt up there.

    The police need to do something substantial and soon. I don't see why they can't just raid these buildings randomly in the night, and check ID of everyone living there and see who they can root out. If they are truly public housing buildings, then they should fall under some sort of public control in which landlords can allow police officers to take stock of potential and existing criminals within the building.

    Best of luck to all - stay safe,

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  14. Come on guys, this is just fisticuffs. Relax.

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  15. I live on on the corner of Sunnyside Mall and Malden. Ripping up Sunnyside Mall isn't going to stop anything. The gang members hang out on the streets, not all that often on the mall. Magnolia is far more menacing than the mall. Police can get through the mall if they need to and there are plenty of windows facing it. It's not like it's a great hideout spot, etc. Actually, ripping Sunnyside Mall out and allowing traffic through there sounds more dangerous to me than having it there. That would be a narrow street, with a lot of windows looking out and given the current state of things, dealing with the possibility of drive by shootings and stray bullets, doesn't sounds like a good plan. The police were blocking Magnolia on my way home today around 4:30. It's awful.

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  16. Maybe you all should email 23ehotline@chicagopolice.org your concerns. Direct your attention towards Kathleen Boehmer, Commander. I've done so, asking for TRS resources and more of a presence within our district. While I'd love to yell and scream, you do catch more flies with honey. Besides I'd rather work with the CPD than against them.

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  17. To all the folks complaining that the CPD did not have resources allocated specifically to the Sunnyside and Magnolia intersection at the time of the shooting, did it occur to you that

    1. The 23rd Police District does not have an infinite number of resources. There are many places in the district that could have been flash points at any point today or any other day for that matter. (Lawrence and Sheridan, Leland and Sheridan, Sunnyside and Broadway, Sunnyside and Sheridan, Hazel and Windsor, Magnolia and Wilson, Broadway and Wilson, Clifton and Wilson, Sheridan and Montrose, Hazel and Agatite, Clarendon and Sunnyside, Clarendon and Montrose, Clarendon and Wilson. Lakeside and Sheridan, Lakeside and Marine, not to mention problematic institutions such as Uplift, Wilson Mens Hotel, Lawrence House, Peoples Temple, Magnolia Strip Mall, Sunnyside Mall, The Darlington, and an assortment of CHA scattered site housing projects. These are the problems inside of the 23rd District in our neck of the woods. They also have to police Gill park and the deal with problems at The Chateau, around Wrigley Field, answer the call when an accident happens on LSD. Plus many more challenges that face one of the most populated police districts in the city of Chicago.
    The Police are given the resources that they have, via City Council and the Mayor. The resources are then allocated by the Department to the districts.
    In my estimation Commander Boehmer has done an outstanding job of allocating the resources that she has been given.
    The problem lies squarely on the back of the current Mayor and City Council for not replacing Police officers at the same rate that they retired over the last 12 years. We are now one year and a half away from any additional manpower assisting in this citywide crime wave, all the while everyday more officers retire as they deserve to after working for this ungrateful city for all these years.

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  18. I have a buddy who is an Iraq war veteran, he was a Marine, he HATES gangs and thugs with a burning passion. I love this guy.

    There are cops, soldiers, private security, and citizens that would LOVE to roll out a barrel of whoop ass on these people, but, we have laws in place that favor criminals. Bitching on UU about solution x or solution y is fun (I'm guilty too) but without becoming politically active and changing these laws, I can only laugh (or cry?)at the idea that things will ever change.

    Maybe I'm simple minded but I see the reality as this; they are uneducated, have very limited resources, can't shoot and hold themselves up on nothing more than an illusionist image of being a thug. They think being or looking "hard" makes "us" afraid. Who holds the money? They know, and it scares them. Case in point: the Starbux panel discussed in another post.

    Change the laws, mount an economic battle, and our problems with urban terrorists are gone.

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  19. Magnolia, Malden and Sunnyside. Aka the shooting range. every day in this area, every day.

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  20. wow...
    two shootings in one week?

    this is scary...and i just moved here.

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  21. Methinks the sunnyside mall was put there in the 80's as a deterrent to driveby shootings and to block the streets off from easy getaways. As more and more homes deteriorated, they were torn down and replaced with CHA homes, and unfortunately, they were concentrated on a street that did go through, all the way from lawrence to montrose.

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  22. The scattered site CHA housing in that location was not built until around 1994.

    A federal judge ordered the CHA to put housing in white and hispanic neighborhoods instead of concentrating it in black neighborhoods.

    The only hoods that had land at low enough prices that fit that criteria were Uptown, Edgewater,Rogers Park, Lincoln Square and parts of Humboldt Park.

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  23. "The only hoods that had land at low enough prices that fit that criteria were Uptown, Edgewater,Rogers Park, Lincoln Square and parts of Humboldt Park."

    Lincoln Square? Where are there CHA buildings in Lincoln Square? I lived in the Square for six years. At Lawrence it changes west of the river, and of course when you get to Uptown, but I can't imagine where any CHA is in the Square.

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  24. There are a few CHA scattered site CHA six flats in the Lincoln Square Ravenswood area.

    Don't ask me where. My brain is scattered at the moment, but I've seen them. Similar style to what we have in Uptown.

    Like the two six flat CHA buildings on Kenmore south of Montrose I'm guessing they are relatively well run.

    There are also a handful of CHA scattered site buildings in Lakeview. From the looks of them they are mostly three flats put up in the 70's.

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