Man Charged In Halloween Shooting That Wounded 3
CHICAGO (STMW/CBS) - A man has been charged after a Halloween shooting in the Uptown neighborhood that left three teenagers--including a 13-year-old boy--critically wounded, police said.
LISTEN: Newsradio 780's Bernie Tafoya Reports
Podcast
Akelo Washington, 20, of the 4800 block of North Winthrop Avenue, was charged with eight felony counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, police said.
This was a particularly violent Halloween weekend. At least five people were killed, and at least 21 more were wounded, in shootings over the weekend in every region of the city.
The Englewood, Woodlawn and Uptown neighborhoods were hit particularly hard.
A shooting at about 5:15 p.m. Sunday at Montrose and Magnolia avenues in the Uptown neighborhood left three people, all in serious to critical condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis.
Two 17-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy were shot, according to police News Affairs.
One was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and one was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston. He did not immediately have ages or genders of these victims. The 13-year-old was also wounded and taken in serious to critical condition to Children's Memorial Hospital, Curtis said.
All three victims were shot in the legs, and one was also shot in the forearm, a Town Hall District lieutenant said.
One witness to the commotion, who lives on Magnolia, said he was walking with his wife, "our two kids and our neighbors and their two kids" at the time.
"We were going to go trick-or-treating on Kenmore (Avenue). We crossed Montrose with the crosswalk light and a four-door sedan with three young men pulled up blocking part of the crosswalk as we were walking across. I walked around the front of the car with one of my kids and the car ran the red light just missing the other kids and adults," he said.
"Then we heard at least five to six shots from across the street just west of Magnolia and (a young man) went running down the street with a gun in his hand towards the car that almost hit us although we didn't see where he ran since we were trying to make sure we were all okay."
This witness then "heard someone leaning against a car on the other side of the street saying he needed help. Someone was calling 911 and we heard sirens. We saw some people run over to help the man and we decided to get going and start trick-or-treating since the kids were crying and scared."
Another witness, who has lived in the neighborhood for 19 years told police about the shooting and was about 60 feet away, walking east on Montrose Avenue at the time. This witness heard about 10 gunshots, then saw a man who appeared to be in his 20s or younger walking east in the middle of Montrose.
The witness didn't see if the man was the shooter, but said he had on dark jeans and a dark jacket, and entered a beige late 80s-early 90s model car which then sped off eastbound on Montrose.
The second witness said there were many young children in the area at the time and "families with young kids out having fun."
The father who was trick-or-treating with his family said, "Jody Weis talked about making life hell for the gangs if the shootings didn't stop. I'd like to say to him, well Mr. Weis the shootings haven't stopped here in Uptown and we are waiting for you to scare the gangs like they scared us tonight."
Belmont Area detectives are investigating.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
