A woman with a concealed carry license pulled out her gun and shot her friend in the leg as they fought inside a car in Rogers Park last month, prosecutors said Tuesday. Ashley Gomez, 30, is charged with felony aggravated battery by discharging a firearm.
Gomez and the 29-year-old victim have been friends for more than ten years, Assistant State’s Attorney Tilesha Jackson said. The women and two others were in a car in the 7400 block of North Sheridan when the two women began arguing around 3:21 a.m. on July 10.
As the argument heated up, Gomez pulled out her gun and pointed it at the victim, Jackson alleged. The victim “criticized” Gomez for pulling the gun, and Gomez put the weapon away, saying she didn’t need a gun to fight the woman, Jackson continued.
She said the women began physically fighting inside the car, and Gomez eventually pulled the gun out again, pointed it at the victim’s thigh, and pulled the trigger.
Gomez and one of the car’s other occupants allegedly fled from the vehicle while the driver took the victim to St. Francis Hospital for treatment.
Jackson said the victim believes Gomez was drunk and high on pot at the time of the shooting.
But Gomez’s private defense attorney, Marc Gottreich, said he did not believe Gomez was drunk or high “unlike the victim in this case.”
Gottreich said Gomez turned herself in when police contacted her, and he predicted the case “will be a self-defense matter.”
Judge Maryam Ahmad said Gomez must pay a $15,000 bail deposit to go home on electronic monitoring. She also ordered Gomez to surrender her concealed carry and firearm owner’s ID cards to Chicago police.