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Shootings 'All Too Normal' on Block Where Man Was Slain, Witness Says

By Darryl Holliday | March 28, 2013 5:02pm | Updated on March 29, 2013 6:23am

AUBURN GRESHAM — A young man found fatally shot near his bicycle on the South Side Thursday afternoon, officials said.

Antoine Louis, 22, of the 7800 block of South Morgan Street, died from a single bullet in the shooting, officials said. The incident occurred about 3:30 p.m. in the 7700 block of South Carpenter Avenue in Auburn Gresham.

A 13-year resident of the block, who didn't want to be named, said he heard three gunshots — one, and then two more in quick succession — before seeing two men flee, one down his gangway and the other down the street.

The man's young grandchildren came outside moments after Louis' body had been removed by officials. One saw the bloodstain in the grass before looking up at his mother.

"That's why you tell me not to go outside," he said.

According to the witness, shootings and murders on the block "aren't out of the ordinary," in fact, "they're all too normal."

He recounted, in detail, six other shootings over the last six years that left young men dead on the block, including one young man who had run into his home about five years ago seeking help for a bullet wound to the neck.

Not far down the street, one of Louis' self-described "good friends" was nearly in tears as he described the man.

"He wasn't out here hangin' and bangin' — zero," he said. "He was a standup man. He loved to ball, loved to ride his bike."

Like many neighbors who had come out to find red-and-yellow police tape surrounding the body covered with a blue bag, he said he didn't know why Louis would have been killed.

Wanda Barron, 41, who lives two homes from where Louis lay dead, said she keeps her five children inside or in the backyard because "you never know when a stray might hit."

She described the block on which she's lived for six years as typically "quiet."

"But this block has a killing every year," she added, echoing several of the incidents described by the witness of the shooting. "This one is the first of the year."

Minutes after Louis' body was taken away, the block cleared entirely, returning to its usual "quiet." His family had left the scene while the body was removed.

No arrests had been made in the slaying as of early Friday.