A man was shot dead on the sidewalk at the entrance to the alley Friday afternoon near Armitage and Humboldt Boulevard. (DNAinfo/Paul Biasco)
LOGAN SQUARE — Early Friday night, with the sun still up, a 20-year-old man was shot dead directly across the street from Parson's, a popular Logan Square restaurant with a regularly packed outdoor patio.
A 21-year-old employee at a cellphone shop across the street was handing out flyers on the sidewalk when he was shot twice in the leg during the same incident.
That shooting put business owners and residents near the intersection of Armitage Avenue and Humboldt Boulevard on edge. And that was before a second shooting near the location early Tuesday.
"It's scary stuff; everybody's worried," said Mohammad Ali, an employee at the Metro PCS cellphone shop his brother owns at 2929 W. Armitage Ave. "My customers are, too."
An employee of this cellphone shop across the street from Parson's was shot twice in the leg during Friday's shooting. (DNAinfo/Paul Biasco)
Ali didn't know the condition of his fellow employee named Jeffrey who got shot twice in the leg, but said he was "lucky to be alive."
Mary, a hairstylist at Jessica's Beauty Salon, was cutting a customer's hair when the shots rang out Friday right outside the shop, two doors down from the cellphone store.
When she came to the window, she saw a big crowd outside Parson's Chicken and Fish. Everyone was looking at 20-year-old Daniel Alcantana's lifeless body on the sidewalk in front of an alleyway.
"It was terrible. There were a lot of people out. People at Parson's. It just gets really packed," said Marco Lopez, 43, who lives near where the shooting took place. "My wife was very shaken up."
There have been two more shootings in the neighborhood over the past four days.
On Monday night, a 6-year-old girl was shot in the back about 8:10 p.m. That shooting was a drive-by on a residential pocket of the neighborhood in the 2100 block of North Bingham Street, police said.
A witness said she heard as many as nine shots fired from a car window. One went into the girl's back.
She was listed in critical condition Tuesday, police said.
About 2:50 a.m. Tuesday, less than 12 hours after the 6-year-old was shot, a 21-year-old was shot in his leg on the same block as the shooting outside Parson's.
Lopez, who has lived near the intersection of Armitage and Humboldt for seven years, woke up to the shots being fired.
"Fortunately or unfortunately I had the opportunity to live in Little Village a while back in my life and obviously I block that part out of my life, but these things happen," he said. "These guys start to get retaliation and it starts to escalate."
Lopez contacted the police department requesting help with an increasing presence of gang members near Richmond and Armitage mourning the loss of Friday's victim.
Alcantana was a documented gang member and was "well known" to officers in the district, according to an email from a CAPS officer.
"Unfortunately he did not heed our warnings and declined our multiple offers of assistance to change his life," the email stated. "Our focus right now will be to locate the offender of this crime and prevent further/retaliatory violence."
Police told Lopez they plan to increase patrols in the area of Armitage and Humboldt and are organizing an outdoor roll call at 6 p.m. on June 14 at Richmond and Armitage.
"Who knows if they are related or not, but it's still very scary that there’s no stopping it," Lopez said of the multiple shootings. "I think the violence will continue for a little bit, but hopefully will stop soon. ... I haven't seen anything like this."
Wondering why traffic on Armitage is shit and then I realize there's been a shooting right near Parson's. Jesus.
— Courey G. (@LonelyCataloger) June 4, 2016
There was a shooting in Logan Square where we are, right across from Parson's Chicken & Fish--shot a woman in the chest. We're fine but wow
— molly w steenson (@maximolly) June 4, 2016
There have been nine shootings so far this year in the Logan Square community area, with 10 victims and five killed.
During the same period in 2015, there were eight shootings with 10 victims and five killed.
From Jan. 1 through June 7, 2014, there were 15 shootings with 18 victims, and three were killed. In 2013 there were nine shootings with 10 victims, one victim died. In 2012 there were three shootings, four victims and no murder victims up until this point in the year.
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