UPTOWN — As Robert Vaccaro took a drag from his cigarette behind Sonic Drive-In Tuesday afternoon, he heard the familiar sound of a string of gunshots.
He said it sounded like it was as many as 10 shots, but others say they heard about five. Either way, when Vaccaro looked around the corner, he knew it wasn't good for the victim.
"I saw the dude lying by the tree by Beauty House across the street. I knew he got shot a couple of times," Vaccaro said, adding that someone began to give the man chest compressions as Vacarro called police.
Around 2:45 p.m. Tuesday, a 25-year-old man was arguing with another man when someone walked up and shot the victim in his chest and legs, said Officer Thomas Sweeney, a Chicago Police spokesman.
The man was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in critical condition and was pronounced dead at 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, police said.
He was identified as Gregory Sims, of the 7800 block of South May Street, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.
Vacarro said gun violence seemed to have declined in the three years he has worked at the fast food drive-in at 1016 W. Wilson Ave.
"That was the first one I've seen this year. It looked like it died down, but not all the way. More work needs to be done," he said. "I grew up in Chicago all my life so I'm used to it. It's just bad to the point it's every day. Something has got to change."
The shooting Tuesday is the most recent in a string of homicides that have occurred in the neighborhood. Since August, three people have been fatally shot in Uptown.
On Aug. 25, 55-year-old Bobby Kraft was shot to death a block away in the 900 block of West Wilson Avenue. Kraft, described by his ex-wife as a man with "a kind soul" and "a big smile," was an innocent bystander of Chicago's street violence, which has seen more murders than New York and Los Angeles combined so far this year.
"He was just moaning. He wasn't loud. Just little ruffled breaths. After two or three minutes, he stopped and I think he passed out," said Charity Taylor, who was walking out of a building on Wilson Avenue when Kraft was murdered. "People were leaning against doors shouting, 'Someone is shooting.'"
Gearhart, a grandmother and StreetWise vendor for the magazine that raises awareness on the impact of poverty and homelessness, was shot in the torso.
"It has been hard news to hear," Julie Youngquist, Executive Director of StreetWise, said after the death. "We were all just shocked and devastated. She had great relationships with everyone who came through our doors."
Before Gearhart's death, Uptown had only one homicide this year, when a 23-year-old man was fatally shot while trying to steal a car in the 100 block of West Winona Street in April.
Outside of the homicides, 19 people have been wounded in shootings so far this year in the neighborhood. Most of the shootings have been concentrated along Wilson and Leland avenues, with five people wounded on Leland and another five people on Wilson.
"We get used to it. It happens all the time," said Ramon Abriles, who has worked across the street from the shooting Tuesday at Uptown Pizza and BBQ, 1031 W. Wilson Ave., for 33 years. "It's been dangerous, but before it was bricks and two-by-fours, now, it's guns."
Abriles saw a young man walk up with a gun in his hand and open fire Tuesday. He blames the recent shootings on gangbangers and young kids fighting over territory, something that has been happening for years, he said.
In 2015, 25 people were wounded in Uptown and another nine people were killed in shootings. In 2014, 18 people were wounded in shootings and another five people were killed. In 2013, 24 people were wounded and one person was killed. In 2012, 23 people were wounded in shootings and five people were killed, according to DNAinfo's map of shootings in the city since 2010.
The most shootings in the neighborhood in recent years occurred in 2011 when 44 people were shot and another three were killed.
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