Sunday, June 29, 2014

Two Women Shot At Montrose Beach This Evening; Two Men Shot Near Wilson/Broadway In Separate Incident

Two women were shot tonight around 6:20 near Montrose Beach.  A reader tells us it happened on the bridge on Montrose just inside the park.  The police give the location as 4500 Simonds Drive.  Readers tell us that five shots were fired.  We don't have any idea if it was random or targeted.

A witness tells us that one woman was shot near the back of the neck and the other in the shoulder.

The beach has been closed.  Due to the large number of post-Parade revelers at the beach, the ambulance and police had a hard time getting through to the victims.

The Sun-Times has an article here.  And the Trib has a short article as well.  We will update as we hear more.

Update:  In a separate incident, readers report hearing 8 to 10 shots fired near Sunnyside and Broadway. A witness reports seeing a man trying to leave the scene shot in the leg.  Our suspicion is that the gangbangers may be using the cops' heavy presence in the southern end of the district to take advantage of the presumed lighter police presence here.  Lots of helicopters and sirens immediately on the scene.

Update:  We are hearing that the two women who were shot are in stable but serious condition.  They are ages 21 and 47.

Update:  A third incident?  We have an unconfirmed report that one person was shot at Wilson and Broadway.  Stay tuned, we're looking for confirmation.

Update:  Okay -- two incidents.  One shortly after 6pm at Montrose Beach, two females shot.  The second at around 8:15 on the 4500 block of Broadway.  Two men were shot, one in the upper leg.  The victim is 18 years old and the police say he is a confirmed gang member.  He brought himself to Weiss Hospital for treatment (presumably the man our eyewitness saw leaving the scene injured).  The other man suffered a graze wound and was treated at the scene.

The police are investigating and can't say yet if there was a connection between the two incidents.

Our advice:  Stay inside tonight, and if you see anything suspicious, call 911.

The Tribune story.  And the Sun-Times story.

5 comments:

  1. I don't know my comment about scaling back the Pride Fest was removed. But yesterday Tom Tunney said they were looking at "alternative" locations for the Pride Fest, maybe Columbus Drive. He was getting a lot of complaints about the number of people in the neighborhood.
    IMO 1 million people are too many for this tiny neighborhood, and you're bound to get some trouble.
    Please don't remove my comment.

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    1. Lianna, first, there's a difference between Pride Fest and the Pride Parade. Pride Fest is the weekend before the Pride Parade, and it's like a mini-Halsted Market Days, designed for a younger crowd, and it closes a couple of blocks of Halsted for what is for all intents and purposes a street festival. Second, if there is a move to MOVE the Pride Parade, it will be discussed thoroughly and it would be agreed to for the right reasons. It would be valuable for you to understand that the Pride Parade doesn't go through just "this tiny neighborhood", besides Uptown, it goes through Lakeview and Lincoln Park, too. That spreads it out a lot. And I saw nothing about any major trouble this year beyond the shootings--one set was quite a distance from the Parade (and I haven't seen anything about it being connected with the Parade), the other was long after the Parade was done and was gang-related--gays and lesbians aren't typically gang-bangers. I didn't see your deleted post, so I don't know what you said, but I hope it wasn't homophobic. Gays and lesbians make up a big part of the fabric of Uptown, and deserve the opportunity to celebrate in this neighborhood.

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    2. Bear: I get that. I understand that. But a little known crime was committed against Whole Foods/Halsted the first weekend of Pride Fest. There were 30 arrests according to the cashiers at Whole Foods.
      This year, it was just overkill with the celebration IMO. And I understand what neighborhoods the parade went through, I lived in both. But it's still too much to go through these tiny streets. Put it in Grant Park.

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  2. bear60640: I'm gay, attended the pride parade and had a great time. however, it is naive to think that the problems that happened on Sunday were not connected with the parade. There is always a gathering at Montrose after the parade. That's where the shooting happened. Also, there were many people in the neighborhood who clearly were not from the neighborhood. There is no other reason they would have been here except for the parade. I don't know if they attended the parade or just saw it as an excuse to come cause trouble, but they were certainly around. And there were parade-related incidents in Boystown as well: lots of fights, damage to a police car, etc. And unfortunately, some of the people fighting are LGBT.
    I love having the parade in Uptown and Lakeview, and hope it is able to continue, but for the past few years, things have been a little out of control. I worry that if this continues for another year or two, things will be moved to Columbus Drive. And frankly, I don't blame our neighbors for wishing that would happen. I certainly don't think they are homophobic for having concerns.

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  3. The crackdown on the "drinking on the public way" with the 1,000 fines did not seem to be enforced. I saw plenty of intoxicated people with open containers walking right in front of CPD. Some people were even passed out with open booze.

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