ROGERS PARK — The target of the shooting that killed bystander Wil Lewis on Saturday had been shot at before on the North Side, police said.
And now the gang member is cooperating with detectives to find the alleged shooter, said Sgt. Shawn Sisk of the Rogers Park Police District community policing office.
"The original target that they were shooting at did not get hit," he said. "He had been the target of other shootings in Rogers Park and Uptown."
Lewis, a 28-year-old freelance photographer, had been walking in the 1300 block of North Devon Avenue when the shooter spotted a rival gang member and took a gun from accomplice Eric Vaughn, of Uptown, police said.
Then the suspected shooter opened fire.
After the shooting, and after Lewis had been shot in the back, Vaughn was arrested and charged in the slaying. Police said the shooter is still at large.
Hundreds of residents came out Wednesday night to walk in solidarity in the Devon Avenue block where the shooting happened.
On Thursday night, more than 50 residents attended a community policing meeting for the area, seeking answers about what happened.
"During the day, gunfire. That's why I'm here," a resident said. "What are we doing about the gun violence?"
Police had few answers to the problem of Chicago's street violence, but encouraged residents to call police and work together to keep gangbangers off the street.
"That missed bullet could have come through any one of your windows," Sisk said. "It's a horrible feeling to feel like you could be a victim at any time."
Sisk said police have "saturated" the neighborhood to prevent shootings.
About 10 p.m. Wednesday, after the anti-violence event on Devon Avenue, two people were shot in the 1500 block of West Farwell Avenue. Sisk said there were also shots fired on the street earlier in the day, but no one was hit.
No arrests have been made.
"Detectives are piecing it together," Sisk said, adding that the shooting didn't appear to be gang-related.
Many of the people who attended the meeting had recently moved to the area and were concerned with several daytime shootings earlier this year, including the February shooting that killed 17-year-old Markeyo Carr in a McDonald's parking lot on Clark Street.
Like Lewis, Markeyo was not the target of the shooting that killed him, police said when the shooting happened.
"I was excited" to come to the neighborhood, said a woman who had recently moved to the area with her husband. "Now I'm scared."
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