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Young Man Wants To Leave Chicago After Escaping Deadly Shooting At Hadiya Pendleton Park

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man who narrowly escaped injury in a shooting that killed a teenager at a park dedicated to non-violence said the experience has changed his life.

A 22-year-old man, who didn't want to reveal his identity, was at Hadiya Pendleton Park in Bronzeville on Friday, when the holiday weekend got off to a violent start.

He was playing some pickup basketball with a group of young men he had not met before, when a gunman approached on foot, and began shooting.

"We were looking up at the rim, and we heard a gunshot, and we turned, and it was a guy right there shooting at us. He wasn't even that far. He was actually on the court," he said.

Everyone immediately ran for their lives.

"The guy was on the court, shooting at us, and I hopped the fence, and ran, and I started hearing … one of the boys were hit. Apparently, two of them were hit," the man said.

Vonzell Banks, 17, was shot in the back, and died a short time later at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. A 19-year-old man was shot in the foot.

The 22-year-old man who was playing basketball with them nearly became a victim, too.

"I got home, and I seen a bullet that went through my shoe. It didn't hit my foot, but it went through my shoe," he said.

He said he realizes he's fortunate to have survived, and he vowed never to set foot in Hadiya Pendleton Park again.

"I don't want to risk, jeopardize my life, or anything like that, to be in a gang-infested park,"

The man said he wants to go further than that, in order to avoid becoming the city's next murder victim. He said if he moves out of Chicago, he's confident he'll reach age 25, but if he stays, "I'm definitely worried."

No one was in custody for the shooting.

The park was renamed after Hadiya Pendleton earlier this year. Hadiya, an 15-year-old honor student, was killed in 2013, about a mile away from President Barack Obama's home in the Kenwood neighborhood, shortly after she and her school band performed at Obama's second inauguration.

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