A 36-year-old man is in good condition after being shot while driving near Boystown late Friday night, police said. The victim is a gang member with multiple felony convictions who is wanted by the Illinois Department of Corrections for failing to comply with the terms of his parole, according to a source.
Police said the injured man was driving southbound near Sheridan and Broadway when someone shot at his vehicle from a black sedan around 11:30 p.m. The victim continued driving southbound until he crashed into two parked cars on the corner of Broadway and Dakin, according to a CPD statement.
The victim and another man ran from the crashed car, but police soon located them near a BP gas station, 841 West Irving Park Road. An ambulance took the victim to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for treatment of a gunshot wound to his left thigh.
Cops reported finding shell casings stretching along Broadway from Sheridan Road to Dakin Street. Several parked cars were struck by gunfire and a taxi cab that was passing by at the time of the shooting was also struck by a bullet. Neither the cabbie nor his passenger was injured.
A source identified the shooting victim as a career felon who was released from prison last September after serving half of a six-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The Illinois Department of Corrections lists the man as being an “absconder,” meaning that he is wanted by the state for failing to comply with the terms of his release.
Since 2001, he has served prison sentences for robbery, aggravated battery of a police officer causing bodily harm, aggravated battery, escaping a penal institution, resisting police, and multiple narcotics violations.
No one is in custody for the shooting, but the victim is being held on the state’s arrest warrant. Area North detectives are investigating.