HUMBOLDT PARK — A 17-year-old who was shot in Humboldt Park early Wednesday morning was inside an abandoned house that has been a problem all summer, according to neighbors on the block.
Witnesses to the shooting said a white car pulled up to the home in the 3500 block of West Pierce Avenue just after midnight and someone pointed a gun out the window and fired into the house.
One of the bullets struck the 17-year-old in the leg, according to police.
Witnesses said the teen limped out the front door of the home after he was shot.
"He was stumbling and he fell right in the street," said a neighbor who lives a block away from where the shooting took place.
The gunman threatened the neighbor and another person on the block when he pulled out the weapon.
"We all saw it. He said if you come closer I'm going to shoot," the neighbor said.
Other neighbors on the block said the home has been abandoned for more than a few years, yet a group of young men have been hanging out there this summer.
Police tape stretched across the front gate to the home Wednesday afternoon.
Bullet holes were visible in a screen on the front window of the home, which was open. A back door was also wide open, yet no one was inside.
Bullet holes can be seen in the window screen where a 17-year-old was shot Wednesday. [DNAinfo/Paul Biasco]
A longtime resident of the block who declined to give his full first name, J. Flores, said he and others have called the police and alderman's office about trouble at the abandoned house but the problem has been ongoing all summer.
"They know about it," Flores said. "The alderman knows about it. The police know about it."
Flores, who has lived on the block for 24 years, said that until the bank that owns the home comes and boards it up, he expects the issues to continue.
The property was foreclosed on in 2009, according to public county records.
"It takes something like this to happen for something to get done," Flores said.
Police said the victim of the shooting was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital. The boy's condition was not available Wednesday morning, but police said he was "stable."
No one was in custody as of Wednesday.
Neighbors on the block said they feared the group that has been hanging inside the abandoned home will come back in a few weeks once things have died down.
"It's scary when you can't walk the street," a resident said.
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