Chicago neighborhood shooting leaves neighbors worried
CHICAGO (CBS) — Neighbors are on edge in a North Side neighborhood after a shootout in broad daylight, and while some ducked down inside their homes, others had to take cover on the street, and some are still reeling nearly 24 hours later.
Neighbors in Budlong Woods are left shaken and said Thursday's shootout hit a little too close to home. On a Friday afternoon, you can find Virginia Avenue to be seemingly quiet, yet some are a bit frightened after what happened yesterday evening.
"We don't know what to do next, though, you know? When something like this happens. It's just a little jarring. You don't know what to do."
Around 6:00 p.m., witnesses told police a driver in a black car was chasing a dark-colored SUV, and people in both cars were shooting at one another.
Billy Sturch ran inside when the shots rang out.
"Heard two cars kind of screech their tires. And then we heard about eight shots go off. (I) heard two different guns and came outside in front and saw shell casings all over the street. Cops got here and they were picking them up and kind of placing them in for evidence. And we don't know we haven't heard anything after that," Sturch said.
In his nearly four decades of living here – this was a first.
"But this close. It's never been this close. So it's a little scary feeling like everything is getting too close to home," Sturch said.
The office of Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said shell casings were collected in the three-block-long shootout.
"You could tell it was a handgun for sure, probably a 40 caliber. The next one might have been a rifle, possibly a shotgun. we didn't see any shells from the rifle or shotgun. we only found them from the handgun, but we found, I think, there were six or seven of those," Sturch said.
Sturch said one woman walking her dog witnessed it all and hid it in a backyard. Another neighbor who spoke off-camera was inside her car as the shots rang out.
"Everybody was scared. Some people thought it was fireworks. They didn't know if it was gunshots or not. But it became pretty clear pretty quickly that it was gunshots. Two of the neighbors we talked to their cars got hit. Their tires were hit and punctured, so right now, they have flat tires on their car," Sturch said.
Neighbors said several aldermen asked them to share any surveillance video they may have of yesterday's shootout. Meanwhile, they're all hoping nothing like this happens again.