Update October 30, 2020, 6:55 a.m. — The Cook County medical examiner’s office today identified the victim as 20-year-old Jhonny Guaman.
A man was fatally shot as he walked on an Uptown side street Thursday afternoon, police said. No one is in custody. A witness reported that they thought the victim was caught up in a robbery when the offenders shot him, but police have not publicly stated a motive for the shooting.
The victim was walking down the 900 block of West Belle Plaine around 2 p.m. when two men emerged from a black Jeep and approached him, according to police and witnesses. One of the offenders fired a gun, striking the man one time in his chest.
Both offenders returned to the Jeep, which reportedly fled southbound on Broadway and then eastbound on Irving Park Road.
Police did not yet know the victim’s age or his name, but they said he appeared to be in his 20’s. An ambulance transported him to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses said the gunmen were two Black men who wore black hoodies or jackets with black track pants.
Thursday’s victim is the second person to be shot in Uptown this week. On Tuesday, a 46-year-old Oak Park man was shot as he sat in his car on the 4600 block of North Winthrop. He was treated for a gunshot wound to his leg, according to police.
There have been six homicides in Uptown so far this year, five of which were by gunshot. The neighborhood did not have any homicides in 2019. CPD records show Uptown recorded two homicides in 2018; five in 2017, and eight in 2016.
