CHICAGO – A 15-year-old boy was shot Tuesday afternoon in Wicker Park, Chicago police said. CPD says he is in good condition.
Investigators were trying to figure out where exactly the shooting took place; However, police and paramedics responded to an address on the 2100 block of West North Avenue for calls of a person shot around 4:26 p.m. They found the boy with a gunshot wound to his right leg.
CPD said the boy was riding in a vehicle when he was shot, but they provided no other information about what happened or who may be responsible.
About five minutes before the “person shot” calls came in, police responded to multiple calls of shots fired in the 1300 block of North Rockwell and the street behind it, the 1300 block of North Maplewood.
Area Five detectives are leading the investigation.
The boy is the fourth person shot in Wicker Park and Bucktown this year. That is eight fewer than last year. Ten people were shot in 2022, including three in a single incident outside a nightclub in the 1500 block of North Milwaukee. Ten people were also shot in 2021, including five in a single incident outside another nightclub in the 1500 block of North Milwaukee.
Wicker Park was never served by the city’s now-deleted ShotSpotter gunfire detection network. One of the reasons it was a valuable tool for police was its ability to help police figure out where shootings took place, even if the victims couldn’t remember or had been deliberately misled.
Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) represents the area where Tuesday’s shooting occurred. He was outspoken against the ShotSpotter system and sometimes led aldermanic maneuvers to ensure that pro-ShotSpotter ordinances failed. Most of the councilors who did not want the city to continue its relationship with the company generally represent safe neighborhoods where the technology has never been used.
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