Unsuspecting People Shot In Head With Paintballs In Incidents Miles Apart
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Unsuspecting people were shot in the head and face in paintball attacks in multiple areas of the city, and two victims have come forward.
CBS 2's Steven Graves spoke to one woman who is now forced to take time off to recover.
Police say the two paintball attacks happened miles away from each other.
One was on East Ohio Street near Fairbanks Court in the Streeterville neighborhood. The other was in the Mayfair area on Lowell Avenue near Elston Avenue.
Breanie Mansanto was struck in the Mayfair attack, and said she was almost blinded.
"It may be funny to you, but it's not funny to us that are victims of it," is Mansanto's message to whoever left her eye swollen shut and bruised.
"I was a millimeter away from being blind," she said.
Mansanto did not want to show her face on camera because of the injuries. But in pictures, she showed us a circle-like scab.
"I felt like I got shot directly in the eye," Mansanto said.
She told police she was hit by a paintball.
Mansanto thinks it came from a group of people across the street who were yelling as she walked home early Tuesday morning.
"They were shouting things or trying to be funny, but I ignored them," she said.
But then she heard shots.
"One caught my eye," Mansanto said. "So that's when I started panicking as I was running home."
She said she dropped her phone. With no other options, she ran to the 24-hour XSport Fitness at 4677 N. Elston Ave. for help.
"I was just like screaming, like: 'Call an ambulance! Call an ambulance! I don't think I'll be able to see again!'" Mansanto said.
Doctors said she would be okay, with a week of recovery.
She believes the culprits were kids playing Halloween pranks.
"But it's not funny when, you know, I was so close to being blind," Mansanto said.
In the incident on Ohio Street, a man was standing on the sidewalk when a sport-utility vehicle heading north on Fairbanks Court came by. A person inside the SUV shot paintballs at the man and he was hit twice – once in the head and once in the left eye, police sources said.
There was a yellow residue left on the man's head, police sources said.
The man told police there were at least three men in the SUV, sources said.
A security guard at a nearby residential high-rise said there were at least four men in the SUV and it was a white Ford. The vehicle headed east on Ohio Street, then north on McClurg Court after the man was shot with the paintballs, sources said.
The man who was struck in Streeterville suffered bruises declined medical treatment, sources said.
As of Wednesday night, both cases are under investigation. Police said any suspects in the cases would be charged with aggravated battery, but as of Wednesday night, no one was in custody.
