Update 7:48 a.m. — A fourth shooting victim was found in the car that police stopped at Balbo and Lake Shore Drive, according to updated information from Chicago police. The man, 20, suffered a gunshot wound to his left side and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition, CPD said. Our original report follows.
An Uber driver and two teenagers were shot by a gunman who was apparently aiming for someone else early Thursday on the Near North Side. The shooting unfolded about 100 feet from where a man was murdered by a drive-by shooter last month.
Citing preliminary information, police said Thursday’s gunman fired shots from a vehicle, possibly a red Charger, toward the occupants of a gray sedan on the 900 block of North Orleans Street around 2:14 a.m.
Bullets struck two 15-year-old boys who were standing on the sidewalk and a 38-year-old Uber driver who was parked and waiting for passengers, police said.
Witnesses reported seeing a red Charger with no license plates speed away south on Orleans after the shooting.
The boys, one shot in the leg and the other shot in the leg and a foot, were taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital in fair condition. Police said the rideshare driver, also in fair condition, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. None of the victims have histories of contact with CPD.
Shortly after the shooting, a CPD traffic unit found a bullet-riddled gray sedan on Lake Shore Drive near Balbo Drive.
“I’ve got a car with rear-end damage and about nine bullet holes in it and the occupants’ got no idea where it happened,” the cop radioed.
“Of course not,” replied another officer.
Early on September 18, 33-year-old Royal Shorts was shot and killed by a drive-by gunman as he stood next to his car near a nightclub on the 800 block of North Orleans. Police were searching for a blue Volkswagen SUV that sped away from the scene. No arrests have been made.
So far this year, 55 people have been shot on the Near North Side, including 11 in October. That compares to 39 people shot at this time last year and 42 shot during all of 2020.
Shootings on the Near North Side are up 104% since 2019 when 27 people were shot by October 7 and 33 were shot during the full year.
Nearly half of this year’s victims have been shot since September 1, according to city records. Among recent cases:
- A 23-year-old man was shot during an armed robbery on the 400 block of North Wells Street early Tuesday.
- A 35-year-old woman told police that she heard a loud sound on the 1800 block of North Clybourn around 9 p.m. last Wednesday night and later went to a hospital when she felt pain in her side and noticed bruising, a CPD spokesperson said. Doctors at Mt. Sinai determined the woman had metal fragments in her side, according to CPD. She was treated and released.
- A 23-year-old man was shot in the leg when someone fired shots from an SUV at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Cambridge Avenue around 1:15 a.m. Friday. People who live nearby said the intersection has been the scene of repeated drive-by shootings in recent weeks, but Friday’s victim was the first person to be hit by gunfire.
- Two people were shot Saturday afternoon when a gunman in a car opened fire on the occupants of another vehicle as they traveled west on Division Street from Orleans around 1:30 p.m. The intended target, a 32-year-old man, suffered gunshot wounds to his leg and torso and crashed outside the 18th District station. Police said a one-year-old boy who was in his car suffered cuts to the foot from broken glass. A 28-year-old woman who was not an intended target was shot in her right arm as she rode in another car along the shooting scene. Police found shell casings stretched along a half-mile of Division Street. Cops found a loaded handgun on the driver’s floorboard of the male victim’s car, according to a CPD report.
- Demetrius Reed and a 29-year-old woman were shot as they sat in car outside a Walgreens at Dearborn and Division at 3:35 a.m. Sunday. A man who was standing nearby was also shot by the gunfire, which police said may have come from a gray vehicle.
- On Sunday evening, a man was shot in the arm as he stood on the 1300 block of North Hudson in Old Town. Police did not immediately release the man’s age. Witnesses aid the gunfire may have come from a red sedan that sped from the scene.
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