A Bridgeview woman was ordered held without bail Wednesday after prosecutors accused her of instigating and abetting a shooting on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park this weekend. Prosecutors said the shooting victim, a 19-year-old woman, lost her left eye after a bullet struck her in the nose and passed through the side of her head.
Around 1:30 p.m. Sunday, the victim was riding in her boyfriend’s front passenger seat when they rolled up to a red light on the 300 block of South Lake Shore Drive. They came to a stop next to a vehicle with three occupants allegedly driven by 26-year-old Jennifer Medina.
Medina stared at the victims, rolled down her window, and said something to the three occupants of her car, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said during a Wednesday afternoon bond hearing. The other three occupants threw up gang signs and began asking the victim’s boyfriend where he is from.
According to Murphy, a man then got out of Medina’s back seat, threatened the victim and her boyfriend, and then fired one shot at the couple as the light turned green. The bullet struck the woman in her nose and went through the side of her head.
Murphy said the victim’s boyfriend tried to render first aid as he sped from the scene, but Medina repeatedly cut him off and blocked his car as the gunman fired more rounds at the victims’ car.
The boyfriend eventually got around Medina’s car to exit at Grand Avenue, where he sought help from a Navy Pier security guard, Murphy said. The woman was transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Surgeons there removed her left eye, and her condition stabilized.
City surveillance cameras captured footage of the shooting, Murphy said. Police used CPD’s extensive license plate reader network and allegedly tracked the gunman’s car back to Medina’s parents. They told police that Medina had their car on Sunday afternoon, according to Murphy.
The shooting victim and her boyfriend both identified Medina in photo line-ups, Murphy said. During questioning, Medina allegedly told police that she didn’t know who the other three people in her car were. She said she didn’t know where she picked them up or where she dropped them off, according to Murphy. But she allegedly did know that the gunman was the front seat passenger’s “makeout buddy.”
Judge Susana Ortiz cited the state’s allegations that Medina “continued maneuvering” to allow the gunman to fire more shots at the victims when she ordered Medina held without bail.
