CHICAGO — There are increasing indications that an internal Chicago Police Department warning was right about four North Side areas with a “strong possibility of retaliatory shootings.”
A drive-by shooting just outside one of the zones that left a man dead and a woman injured on Sunday morning was targeted, a local alderman said. Hours later, gunmen in two cars chased after another driver, firing shots at him until he crashed, uninjured, into an Edgewater restaurant. The chase began smack in the middle of one of the areas CPD flagged for retaliation.
Police were told to expect retaliation in two parts of Uptown, a section of Edgewater, and part of Rogers Park as a long-running feud heats up between the Wicked City faction of the Black P Stones street gang to the south and the Gangster Disciples to the north.
Here’s the latest:
Officials suspect that a 30-year-old man shot and killed in the 1300 block of West Devon around 1:43 a.m. Sunday was targeted as he left Samah Hookah Lounge at closing time, Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) said on Facebook. A woman was also shot in the leg.
“This is not the first shooting to take place outside this business and since it borders our ward, we are working with the 48th Ward Alderperson and police as Area 3 Detectives investigate,” Hadden wrote.
The shooting scene was just two blocks north of a hot zone CPD flagged for retaliatory shootings between Granville, Ardmore, Broadway, and Sheridan.
Then, around 5 a.m., a 42-year-old man was targeted by two gunmen as he drove in the 5000 block of North Winthrop. That’s in the center of a second CPD hot box running from Foster to Lawrence and Broadway to Sheridan.
The man was driving when gunmen in two cars began shooting. They chased him all the way to the 5500 block of North Clark, firing shots along the way, until he crashed into Little Bad Wolf restaurant, 1541 West Bryn Mawr, a CPD traffic crash report said.
Witnesses said the shooters’ two cars split up after the crash, with a white Hyundai heading north on Clark and a white Hyundai truck heading south on Clark.
The victim’s car was struck by bullets, Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) said in a newsletter Sunday. He was not injured. Manaa-Hoppenworth said police made an arrest in connection with the incident, but a Chicago police spokesperson said no charges were pending as of Sunday evening.
CPD’s crash report said the two cars cut the victim off at Bryn Mawr and Clark, and the gunmen fired more shots toward him in the intersection. That caused him to “swerve and uncontrollably collide onto [sic] the wall of the restaurant.”
This new cycle of gang violence began on May 23 with the shooting of a 22-year-old man in the 4500 block of North Magnolia, according to the bulletin. A gunman literally fell out of a moving SUV as he shot at the victim around 3:30 p.m., said an officer who reviewed surveillance video of the incident.
Retaliation came almost immediately.
About 20 minutes after the shooting, a 33-year-old man was killed in an alley behind the 5900 block of North Winthrop. Witnesses reported that a car rolled through the alley, and a gunman fired from the vehicle. An officer at the scene said police found a handgun in the victim’s possession.
Last month, four people were shot in Oak Park during a funeral procession for Jamal Goings, the man who was killed on Winthrop.
Since then, shootings occurred in Uptown on July 2, July 19, and Tuesday.
In Rogers Park, there were shootings on June 9 and June 22, and then a triple shooting on June 25. Another person was shot on July 5, and five were shot during a single incident on July 7. Most recently, a man was shot on July 8. Many of the Rogers Park shootings occurred in the 1600 block of West Howard.
CPD issued the warning to officers after three men were shot Tuesday near the Wilson CTA station in Uptown.