Prosecutors today charged a 16-year-old boy with being the gunman who shot a woman as she rode in a car on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park earlier this month, police said.
The teen, who authorities did not identify because he is a juvenile, is accused of firing the gun that struck the 19-year-old woman in her head as she sat in the passenger seat of a car at Lake Shore Drive and Jackson around 1:30 p.m. October 11. He was arrested Monday.
Prosecutors previously charged the car’s alleged Driver, Jennifer Medina, age 26, with attempted murder in the case.
During Medina’s bond hearing on October 14, prosecutors said three other people were in her car when she pulled up next to the victim’s vehicle to wait for a red light to change on the northbound drive at Jackson.
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. The other three occupants threw up gang signs and began asking the victim’s boyfriend where he is from.
According to Murphy, the gunman, now identified as the 16-year-old, 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.
When investigators confronted Medina about the shooting, she said she didn’t know who the other three people in her car were — except the gunman was her front seat passenger’s “makeout buddy.”
The 16-year-old is charged with felony attempted first-degree murder and felony aggravated battery by discharging a firearm.
Medina continues to be held without bail in Cook County jail.
