9 Hurt In Shooting At South Side CTA Turnabout

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Jul 27, 2010 2:00PM

In a violent summer, the city last night saw its most violent single incident so far. Nine people were hurt - one seriously - in what police are calling a gang-related shooting at a CTA turnabout at 7900 S. Western Ave., a junction for both the CTA's No. 49 and No. 79 buses. According to police, five of the nine victims are known gang members (four Gangster Disciples, one Vice Lord). The victims, eight males and one female, ranged in age from 16 to 31. CPD Supt. Jody Weis stressed the gang-related nature of the shooting, telling reporters, "I don't want people to think there's any kind of threat against people waiting for the bus or anything like that." We're all breathing a sigh of relief; thanks, Jody.

While police recovered shell casings but they've yet to recover any weapons used. They've also asked for any video surveillance available close to the scene. Police have yet to confirm whether shots were fired from a car or if the shooter(s) were on foot.

The shooting comes a week after the Tribune published a poll and accompanying story that showed while most Chicagoans thought crime was up, statistics say otherwise. The story places the reasoning for the high crime perception on high-profile incidents including the shooting deaths of three Chicago Police officers over a two month period. According to data collected by Tracy Swartz for Red Eye's Homicide Map, an outstanding resource, murders through July 26 of this year (253) are about even with the same time period last year (254) and still behind 2008 (283). Murders for July of this year (35) also remain well below last year's total (58).