Two people were injured in a drive-by shooting in River North overnight, and police are working to determine if the gunman’s vehicle was taken in an armed carjacking in Streeterville hours earlier.
Chicago police officers on patrol near State and Hubbard streets reported shots fired at 3:40 a.m. They quickly found two men with gunshot wounds and five shell casings in the 400 block of North State.
A 29-year-old man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition with a gunshot wound to his thigh. The other man, who police said is about 20-years-old, was treated at the scene for a graze wound to his leg.
Witnesses said the gunman fired from a black Jeep that fled north on State Street after the shooting.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that the Jeep was the same one that had been hijacked from a restaurant valet stand in Streeterville.
At around 7:45 p.m. Sunday, a white Chrysler 300 pulled up to the restaurant in the 600 block of North St. Clair and three men stepped out, with one displaying a firearm, according to police. They demanded control of a black Jeep Grand Cherokee that was parked in the valet area.
A police spokesperson said the 46-year-old victim ran from the gunmen, who jumped into the Jeep and headed south with the Chrysler following.
So far this year, 16 people have been shot in the River North neighborhood. There were eight shooting victims in the neighborhood at this point last year and two as of June 27, 2020. In 2019, the area saw nine shooting victims as of this date. Four of those were from a single incident.
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