RIVER NORTH — Shots rang out in the River North neighborhood Tuesday afternoon, leaving one man shot in the abdomen and police on the hunt for his attacker.
In a city plagued by shootings, gunfire in the downtown River North neighborhood is rare, particularly during the day. In fact, it was just the second shooting in the area since the start of 2015.
The mayhem played out not far from the Hooters on Wells Street at about 2:30 p.m.
A 24-year-old man was shot in the abdomen in the 600 block of North Wells Street, said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago Police spokesman. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in serious condition, Sweeney said.
Ald. Brendan Reilly (42) said the victim was targeted and that the attacker had been waiting "for some time" for the victim to exit a restaurant in the block before he was shot.
The shooter fled in a grey minivan, Reilly said in an email to constituents. Chicago Police described the suspect as a black man wearing a blue hoodie and blue jeans.
"We are fortunate gun violence is a rare occurrence in downtown Chicago," Reilly said. "But when an individual is specifically targeted for gun violence it can happen anywhere."
Witnesses on the scene, a strip of Wells Street that includes the Hooters, a Jet's Pizza and Cocoro Japanese restaurant, confirmed that the two men seemed to know each other and were walking together on the sidewalk before the shooting occurred. Police also said the men apparently knew each other.
Evlogio Alvarado, 36, who works nearby, said he was walking westbound down Erie when he heard two "pops" and saw a man and a woman in the doorway of Hooters. The man was shielding the woman.
He then saw a man with a gun in front of the Cocoro restaurant and heard another four gunshots. The shooter then fled and ran into an alley, Alvarado said.
Police said the man eventually fled, possibly in a gray minivan.
Alvarado went to check on the victim who he said was still breathing and moving.
"It's definitely something you don't expect here," he said. "People think it only happens in bad neighborhoods but it can happen anywhere."
Taking down police tape at river north shooting scene @DNAinfoCHI pic.twitter.com/J6cU5l93UR
— Mina Bloom (@mina_bloom_) March 8, 2016
David Matthews contributed.
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