LAKEVIEW — A gunman who fired shots near two Lakeview schools, shattering the door of a CTA bus, might have been targeting a Lake View High School student, police said.
The 16-year-old student told police a man fired shots at him at Irving Park Road and Southport Avenue around 3:20 p.m. Tuesday. The intersection is two blocks north of Blaine Elementary School and east of Lake View High School.
A CTA bus driver stopped at the intersection heard a "pop" noise and pulled over, police said. The driver found the window of the bus front door shattered upon inspection.
Witnesses described the suspected shooter as a heavy-set Hispanic man wearing a black jersey with numbers written in yellow letters, according to scanner reports quoted by the anonymously run Crime in Wrigleyville + Boystown blog. (Information from police scanners is unconfirmed.)
Detectives are investigating.
High school Principal Scott Grens deferred comment to Chicago Public Schools officials, who did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
At Lake View, students learned of the shooting Wednesday, and parents received a letter detailing the incident, parent Maria Guasso said.
Guasso was volunteering at Lake View, 4015 N. Ashland Ave., when the shots were fired, and said there was no disruption to activity inside the school, which dismisses most students at 4:12 p.m.
It's unfair to connect the high school to the shooting, Guasso said.
"Is it upsetting a shooting happened three blocks away? Absolutely. But it's also three blocks away from Blaine," Guasso said. "I think [Lake View] gets a bad rap."
In a 2015 survey, nine out of 10 parents said they felt "completely" or "mostly" safe sending their children to Lake View.
After volunteering at the school for five years, Guasso agreed; her daughter is currently a freshman at Lake View.
"I think the bigger picture is the police presence and the rise in crime in the city" as a whole, Guasso said.
Police amped up their presence around Lake View High School after shots were fired nearby in November 2014.
No one was injured in that incident, either, and police arrested four people the same night. Now-former Cmdr. Elias Voulgaris said at the time the incident stemmed from a long-standing gang feud, and none of the people involved were from the area or the school.
The school and nearby aldermen have pushed to make Lake View an attractive neighborhood option. The Grow-Community initiative launched a year ago with the goal of strengthening high schools like Lake View and Amundsen.
This year, Lake View's school quality rating rose from the third highest out of five to the second highest, placing it in the top half of the district's 660 schools and declaring it "a good school choice with many positive qualities," according to CPS guidelines.
Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) simultaneously announced a multimillion=dollar investment geared toward increasing the academic rigor of the school and providing stronger connections to area elementary schools.
As of fall 2014, 77 percent of Lake View students came from outside attendance boundaries, which include portions of Lakeview, North Center and Uptown.
Since then, the school has raised its graduation rate and college enrollment numbers. More students are also getting early college credits, according to a 2015 report.
Guasso credits Lake View's principal and his staff with the school's recent successes. Grens was unanimously chosen in June 2014 after serving as interim principal following his predecessor Lilith Werner's unexpected departure.
"We're moving forward, and we couldn't have a better principal," Guasso said. "The whole administration is working toward the same goal: making us a premiere neighborhood high school. I love it."
RELATED:
• Lake View High School Gets Ratings Boost, Multimillion Dollar Investment
• After Gang Shooting Near Lake View High School, Police Amp Up Presence
• Neighborhood Schools Can Be A Top Choice For Families, Aldermen Say
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