Man Killed In Irving Park Shooting
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Manuel Arizaga was shot and killed while walking to work Friday morning, less than a block from the home he shared with his wife and baby girl in the Irving Park neighborhood, according to his family.
About 4:40 a.m., the 34-year-old man was found shot once in the head in the 3600 block of North St. Louis Avenue, according to police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.
His uncovered body was at the mouth of the eastern alley of Drake Avenue, just south of Waveland Avenue, as police investigated.
Officers at the scene said the shooting may have been a robbery gone wrong and Arizaga didn't show any signs of being a gang member.
His brother, 38-year-old Julio Arizaga, said he was driving to pick Manuel up at the intersection of Waveland and Kimball to go to work at a nearby furniture delivery company when he found out his brother was shot.
Manuel had just left his home near Waveland and Drake — which he shared with his wife and 1-year-old daughter — to walk to Waveland and Kimball Avenue when he was shot, his brother said.
About a dozen more members of Manuel Arizaga's family arrived at the crime scene as several news helicopters hovered overhead.
Maria Lopez, who has lived four doors north of the shooting for 20 years, said that she told her daughter — who has two young sons and also lives nearby — not to exit through the alley to avoid seeing Arizaga's body.
Lopez said that recent shootings in the area have made her want to sell her home and move, adding that she fears for her grandsons' safety.
"You can't raise two little boys here," Lopez said.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2015. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
