A three-time felon who was once caught firing 15 rounds in a Wicker Park intersection is now charged with attempted murder for firing shots during an altercation outside the Jefferson Park Blue Line station this summer, according to Chicago police.
Police responding to a report of shots fired outside the CTA station around 5:16 a.m. on August 15 found shell casings from multiple firearms near the bus turnaround and on a nearby side street. No injuries were reported, however.
As CWB Chicago reported shortly after the incident, police arrested Gabriel Serrano, 36, within minutes of shots being fired — and officers reportedly recovered a gun, too — but Serrano was not charged in connection with the incident until now.
According to preliminary information, a physical altercation among a group of people escalated when at least two participants, possibly more, began shooting. Authorities are expected to provide more details about what they believe happened when Serrano appears for a detention hearing at the courthouse at 26th Street and California Avenue on Thursday afternoon.
Within hours of the incident, CPD released surveillance images of a man and a woman detectives wanted to speak with in connection with the shooting. Their potential involvement was never publicly explained.
Serrano is no stranger to Chicago police. In August 2021, an officer patrolling alone took him into custody after reportedly seeing him fire a gun in a Wicker Park intersection. Serrano later complained that the officer had taken his “good gun,” prosecutors said.
The incident unfolded at Division Street and Wolcott Avenue, just a few blocks from where a 7-year-old boy had been shot three days earlier. The officer was turning into the intersection around 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday when he reportedly heard 12 to 15 gunshots. He looked down the block and saw a muzzle flash about 20 feet away as Serrano continued shooting, prosecutors said.
The officer got out of his patrol car and ordered Serrano to the ground at gunpoint, according to prosecutors. Serrano, then 30, allegedly threw the gun over a fence as he went toward the pavement. Officers recovered the weapon along with 15 shell casings. Serrano later admitted to possessing the gun and told investigators he was sad because “this is my good gun,” prosecutors said.
Initially charged with being an armed habitual criminal, a Class X felony, Serrano pleaded guilty to unlawful firearm possession by a felon with a prior conviction in exchange for a seven-year prison sentence. He received that sentence in December 2022. State law cut the sentence in half, and Serrano also received credit for the 480 days he had spent in jail awaiting trial. His previous convictions include robbery and illegal gun possession.
In 2013, Serrano was accused of getting into a shootout during a memorial service for a friend in Humboldt Park. He pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and received a four-year sentence.
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