A week filled with reports of gunfire and jittery residents came to a head when two men were shot and wounded near Evanston’s southern border Wednesday night.
The victims were walking on the 300 block of Custer Avenue when a man in a dark hooded sweatshirt charged at them from a dark alley, Evanston Police Cmdr. Tom Guenther said.
The man then shot each victim once as they fled, Guenther said.
According to a post by Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) on her message board, the Evanston man suffered a gunshot wound in his upper right chest, while the other victim was shot in his lower calf and suffered a broken leg. Police found three shell casings near the crime scene, the message board read.
Rainey declined to comment on the incident, but said the information posted came directly from an e-mail police sent her Wednesday night.
“I would never print anything like that without talking to the police,” she said.
The two victims also have extensive criminal records that combine for 67 arrests but only six convictions, the post said.
Guenther refused to confirm or deny anything posted on the alderman’s “Great 8th Message Board,” but said residents should not put too much stock in anything published on the Web site.
Still, residents have flocked to the board since the shooting, using it to exchange information and organize a community response. One user even posted photos of the first emergency responders arriving at the scene to alert neighbors.
“We can’t fix problems unless we talk about it,” said 8th Ward resident Candace Hill.
The problem is that police can’t seem to prevent repeated crime on the block, residents said in person and on-line.
“I think the whole last month has taken the police by surprise,” Hill said.
But police are aware of the area’s problems, Guenther said.
Custer Avenue repeatedly comes up in weekly deployment meetings, and just last week police stationed the department’s command vehicle on the block of the shooting, Guenther said. He described the vehicle as a “Winnebago” that serves as a mobile police station.
“We’re taking the incidents very seriously,” he said. “We always plan for things of this nature, but you can’t predict them.”
Wednesday’s shooting caps a week of an unusual high number of gunfire reports throughout the city, particularly in south Evanston.
In the seven days leading up to the shooting, police responded to eight reports of shots fired, not including a reported shooting on the Chicago side of Howard Street this weekend. Police responding to the reports could not verify that shots were fired.
Regardless, police and residents agreed more community involvement is needed in addition to a strong police presence.
Neighborhood residents will hold a meeting in the park at the corner of Mulford Street and Callan Avenue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Police will attend the meeting.
