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'That Stuff Kind Of Happens In Chicago,' Principal Says After Shooting

By Howard Ludwig | May 17, 2016 4:08pm | Updated on May 17, 2016 4:56pm
 Salik Mukarram, principal of Shoop Academy, said a shooting that occurred nearby Monday night did not impact his students the following day. The elementary school at 11140 S. Bishop St. has about 500 students.
Salik Mukarram, principal of Shoop Academy, said a shooting that occurred nearby Monday night did not impact his students the following day. The elementary school at 11140 S. Bishop St. has about 500 students.
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DNAinfo/Howard A. Ludwig

MORGAN PARK — The steady hum of Interstate 57 could be heard Tuesday morning from the playground just outside of Shoop Academy in Morgan Park.

Inside the school at 11140 S. Bishop St., music blared as students line danced in the cafeteria. The elementary school children were seemingly unaware of the gunshots that erupted outside the night before.

Police were called at 8:35 p.m. Monday with reports of shots being fired in the 11100 block of South Hamlet Avenue — just outside the elementary school with roughly 500 students, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The driver of a 2011 Dodge Caravan was found dead inside his silver minivan that was riddled with eight bullet holes. He suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and the van was found on the shoulder of I-57 near 108th Street, police said.

The man has been identified as Maurice Johnston, 37, of the 11500 block of South Wentworth Avenue, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

Detectives are still investigating the shooting and hoped to get more clues Tuesday from area surveillance cameras, police said.

"That kind of stuff happens in Chicago. I think more and more, people are becoming numb to it," said Salik Mukarram, principal of Shoop Academy, 1460 W. 112th St.

Mukarram was outside of the school that sits just east of the interstate to greet students and parents Tuesday morning. He said no one was talking at drop off about the incident from the night before. Thus, the school was operating within its normal routine, as Mukarram was unaware of any further threats in the wake of the shooting that occurred well after school had ended.

Charles Hughes has lived across the street from Shoop Academy for 51 years. He said the surrounding neighborhood is mostly quiet, though he was critical of the police response he's experienced in the past and said there's an overall lack a police presence in the area.

"If we have something around here, we call [police] but we don't get service," Hughes said.

Maurice Johnston [Facebook]

Hughes said he did not hear the gunshots or the police sirens Monday night. But he said such sounds are not all together unfamiliar. He's previously heard shots being fired both east and west of his home.

"If we don't get more patrols through here, it is going to get worse," he said.

Robert Barnes is the director of the Morgan Park Boys & Girls Club at 1425 W. 112th St. Operating out of a former Catholic school, Barnes believes his club offers a safe haven for children living in the area where the shooting occurred.

"It's sad. It's going on everywhere. I just want it to stop," Barnes said Tuesday.

Margot Burke Holland is the executive director of the Beverly Area Planning Association. She was just leaving a meeting at her office Monday night when the shooting occurred less than a mile away.

"You never want to hear of any shootings in such a close proximity," Holland said Tuesday.

She said the incident occurred outside of her association's boundaries. Still, countless members of her neighborhood group travel on I-57 each day, often using the on- and off-ramps near Shoop Academy.

Holland encouraged those concerned by the shooting to take a proactive approach to fighting neighborhood crime by attending CAPS meetings and being vocal about troubling patterns of behavior.

"We can't leave the police department alone in this. It's all of our responsibilities to step up and get engaged," she said.

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