Multiple People Hit With Paintballs Along Division Street In Wicker Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Several people were hit with paint balls Tuesday evening as they stood on the sidewalk on Division Street in Wicker Park.
The paint balls were fired from a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle. They struck people on Division Street between Wood Street and Wolcott Avenue, and also between Damen and Hoyne avenues.
During the fall of both last year and the year before, there were numerous complaints about paintball attacks are happening all across the city.
Last fall, Chris Trani had a scar on his face as he talked with CBS 2's Jermont Terry. The injuries were left behind after a group of guys in a white sport-utility vehicle sprayed him with paintballs while he was riding a bicycle off Sheffield Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
"Someone yelling, 'Hey man!'" Trani said. "And I look over and right then, they started shooting me in the face."
Trani ended up with his face swollen and an ugly bruise above his right eye.
Similar attacks were reported last fall from the Loop and Streeterville to West Town and Oak Park, and also on the University of Chicago campus. In Chatham last fall, a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver was injured in a paintball attack.
Right before Halloween in October 2019, Chicago also saw a similar uptick of random attacks.
One man's dashcam captured the sounds, and an image of someone hanging out the back window with a long paint gun – also from a white SUV – at Ontario Street and McClurg Court in Streeterville just about exactly a year ago.
"Every October, someone seems to think that it's funny to come and attack people in the streets of Chicago," Trani said last year. "What I don't think these people realize is that it's assault. It's been classified – the police report called it battery."
