WRIGLEYVILLE — A shootout between two groups of armed men also drew shots from police officers a block away from Wrigley Field early Sunday morning, police said. The shootout, which one witness said the police told her included 86 shots fired, also resulted in one man being wounded.
Around 3:05 a.m., two police officers from the Town Hall District were conducting a traffic stop in the 1100 block of West Patterson Avenue when they heard gunshots coming from the intersection of Racine and Patterson avenues, according to Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
The officers headed toward the gunfire, where they saw two men shooting at an unknown target, Estrada said. The gunmen then started running eastbound on Patterson Avenue in the direction of the officers, Estrada said.
The officers pulled out their guns and each fired one shot, at which point the two men dropped their guns and ran in the other direction, Estrada said.
Police recovered both guns but made no arrests, Estrada said.
No injuries were originally reported at the scene, Estrada said, but "a short time later" a 26-year-old man walked into St. Francis Hospital with a gunshot wound in his upper back, saying he'd been shot at Racine and Patterson. He was in serious condition, Estrada said.
Police said they haven't yet determined whether the man was shot by the officers, or whether he was hit during the preceding shootout between what they believe were two groups of armed men.
The next day, bullet holes were visible on at least four cars parked along the street, and others had damage suggesting they'd been hit by another car.
One of those cars belonged to Ron Zeko, who was returning to his apartment in the 3600 block of North Racine Avenue from a friend's house to find the entire block taped off by police. When he went to check on his car, he said, he found that the front and back windshields had been shot through.
The front and back windshields on Ron Zeko's Jeep were hit by gunshots. (DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin)
Zeko said officers handed him a police report and told him to contact his insurance company. He'd experienced gun violence, he said, but not in the five years since he's lived in Wrigleyville.
"You can move out of bad neighborhoods to get away from the crime, but then it happens in the good neighborhoods, too," Zeko said. "Shootings aren't just happening in the South Side anymore. This is the whole city's problem."
Jillian Daugherty was asleep in her second-floor apartment when she was jolted awake by "about 30 shots" directly in front of her building, she said. Police later told her a total of 86 shots had been fired.
After the shooting stopped, Daugherty said, she looked out her bedroom window facing the street and saw three police SUVs and about a dozen officers searching the street for evidence.
"It was scary as hell — I haven't slept since it happened," Daugherty said. "I've lived in Chicago my whole life, and you're always looking out for robberies and stuff like that, but I've never seen anything like this."
The Town Hall (19th) District was promised a 43-officer boost by the end of 2016, though the plan got off to a slow start in November. Both Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) and Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said they fought for a "commitment" to get more officers in the district after a "rough" summer of crime.
Mike Schmidt, who said he heard the shooting from his apartment up the street, said the shooting should be a signal for the Tunney and Mayor Rahm Emanuel to take public safety more seriously.
"The mayor needs to up his game — he needs to man up and take outside help, like from the National Guard," Schmidt said. "This just doesn't happen around here. I mean, this was like the shootout scene from 'Heat.'"
Pat Camden, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, declined to comment on the police-involved shooting.
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