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FOX 32 / SUN-TIMES - A 66-year-old man and two 12-year-old boys were hurt in a drive-by shooting Tuesday afternoon in the Old Town neighborhood on the Near North Side.
They were in the 1400 block of North Sedgwick at 2:41 p.m. when a vehicle drove by and someone fired shots, according to Chicago Police.
The man suffered a gunshot wound to the hand and was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, police said.
One of the 12-year-old boys was shot in the chest and the other 12-year-old boy was shot in the left leg, police said. Both were taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital.
All three of their conditions were stabilized, police said.
The two boys live in the Marshall Field Gardens apartments in the same block where the shooting happened, according to a statement from Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd). The 66-year-old man is a maintenance employee of the privately managed apartment building.
“What do I feel like? Upset, and mad, about to cry. These are babies,” said Deborah Thomas, an aunt of one of the boys.
A woman inside this nearby coffee shop heard the gunshots and ran to the front window and saw the three victims lying on the ground.
“I mean I come here all the time and this is never happened before there are a lot of people in the café who had never been here before and asked if this was the norm and I said it wasn't 49 but it's really scary it's really sad,” said witness Sydney Rae.
Neighbors told FOX 32 that people from the Marshal Fields housing complex across the street regularly congregate outside the minimart, and empty heroin packets often litter the sidewalk.
Police say the area is a known drug hot spot, and it could be that someone hanging outside the store was the actual target of the shooting and not the two boys and the man who were wounded.
FOX 32 talked to 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins, who represents part of Old Town and from what police have told him, the three victims were not the intended targets of the shooting.
Alderman Hopkins says the intended target is a known gang banger and drug dealer who was hanging out there at the time. The area outside the store is a known open air drug market and the alderman is taking steps to put an end to it.
“I have requested a drug interdiction detail be assigned to the Marshall Field Homes. I've personally witnessed drug sales there as recently as two weeks ago. I was driving down Sedgewick and I was stopped by the car in front of me who decided they had to wait for the drug dealer to come up to the car and exchange cash for drugs and the dealer had the nerve to walk away in broad daylight counting his money in front of anybody who happened to witness this,” Hopkins said.
In late October, twin 17-year-old brothers were killed in a drive-by shooting in Old Town, less than a block away from Tuesday’s shooting.
Edwin and Edward Bryant were standing outside about 3:15 a.m. in the 1300 block of North Hudson when a dark-colored vehicle drove by and someone inside opened fire, according to Chicago Police.
The brothers were two of four teenagers shot dead the weekend of Oct. 31 in Chicago.