Uptown Shootings Make For 'Horrible Halloween'
UPDATED 11/1/10 4:39 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) - Families trick-or-treating in the Uptown neighborhood were sent scurrying for cover, and children were left crying and frightened, after three teenagers were shot critically wounded on the street before sundown Sunday.
In a separate incident about an hour later, a 35-year-old man was killed in a gang-related shooting.
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CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports on shootings that have some residents saying enough is enough.
"And all of a sudden, 'bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.' We jumped over here, and we were huddled over here, and I was looking back to see if there's somebody trying to shoot at us," said Uptown resident Chris Korn.
That's how trick or treating started for Chris Korn's children and about a dozen others as shots rang out near the corner of Montrose and Magnolia around 5:15 p.m. Sunday.
Many ducked behind parked cars for safety.
"At that moment, there's nothing you can do," said Korn. "You just have to try to get out of the way, and you're just hopeful that there's not a stray bullet that's going to come get you or your kids."
Two 17-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy were shot, according to police News Affairs.
One just across the street from Korn and his family.
"He was leaning up against the cars on the other side and he was saying 'I need help. I need help,'" said Korn.
The victims were all hospitalized in serious to critical condition, according to Fire Media Affairs spokesman Quention Curtis.
Another witness who lives in the 4400 block of Magnolia reported seeing trick-or-treaters hiding behind cars and trees on the street, according to the Uptown Update blog.
People living in the area say it's a terrible sign of the times when kids can't even trick or treat without fearing getting shot.
"That's the time you should feel safe when you're outside," said Uptown resident Karolina Melwinska.
But instead they're caught in the middle of crossfire.
In the second incident, a man was shot and killed just a few blocks away in the 1000 block of West Sunnyside Avenue.
The 35-year-old man was shot in the head at 6:20 p.m., according to a report from police News Affairs.
The victim, identified as Marlos Canteberry of the 900 block of West Wilson Avenue, suffered a gunshot to head, authorities said
Canteberry was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office., a Cook County Medical Examiner's office spokesman said.
A comment on an earlier CBSChicago.com story on the Uptown shootings identified Canteberry as "a neighborhood man who sold movies."
"Innocent people dying for nothing in Uptown," said the comment by reader "Unbias."
For some in the Uptown community, like Joe Friedman, the shootings are no surprise. He and his friends were caught in the middle of the first shooting of the day around 1 a.m. near Wilson and Malden.
"Then the shots rang out, we all hit cover right here, and then we crawled down in there, and we were just waiting and waiting," Friedman said. "Minutes seemed liked hours. You're so helpless. You don't know what to do. We were scared."
All three shootings are still under investigation, and no one has been arrested.
The gunfire also continued on Monday morning. A person was reportedly apprehended after shots were fired at Hazel Street and Agatite Avenue just after 10 a.m., according to published reports.
Uptown Update expressed fury at the shootings.
"At least five people were shot, and one died, in the last 24 hours," the main blog entry read. "It makes us ill. Our thoughts and sympathies are with those who lost, or came close to losing, someone they loved tonight; and with those who were traumatized by what should have been a fun evening turning into a night of bloodshed and terror."
The blog called Sunday "Uptown's Horrible Halloween."
Many people living in Uptown blame Ald. Helen Shiller for some of the recent violence in the 46th Ward, but some longtime residents say things were much worse before Shiller.
CBS 2 reached out to Shiller for comment, but was told she was unavailable.
CBS 2's Mai Martinez and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
