The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times are both reporting that a Dept. of Revenue employee, attempting to boot a vintage car in the South Chicago neighborhood was attacked then shot Monday morning.
The DOR employee is in serious condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The attacker is still at large.
Ya’ know. I understand that getting parking tickets is upsetting. And getting the boot is REALLY upsetting. Perhaps it makes you angry or even enrages you.
You actually may loathe the people doing the ticketing or booting. Fair enough. You are entitled to your opinion. Whatever.
But attacking and shooting someone booting your car is NOT acceptable and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
Let’s have a prayer for the gentleman that was shot and hope the cops catch the nutbag shooter.
Unbelievable.
Police seeking vehicle’s registered owner
By David Heinzmann
A City of Chicago worker putting a Denver boot on a vintage Buick coupe was shot in the back Monday morning after a confrontation with the car’s owner, police said.
The Department of Revenue worker was in serious condition in Northwestern Memorial Hospital after the 10:35 a.m. attack in the South Chicago neighborhood, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said.
Police said they are looking for the car’s registered owner after the victim identified him as his attacker, Bond said.
The 35-year-old revenue worker was booting the car when a man who claimed to be the owner attacked him with a stick, Bond said.
After they “exchanged words,” the attacker ran down an alley, but then he re-emerged with a gun and shot at the worker, wounding him in the small of the back, Bond said.
The gunman then fled, and police were still looking for him Monday afternoon, she said.
At the scene, police recovered three .22-caliber shell casings believed to be from the gun used in the crime, she said.
Escalating violent crime in the South Chicago neighborhood has been a major concern for police and the community this year. A spike in gun violence has given the district the highest murder rate among the city’s 25 patrol districts so far this year.
Keith Griffith, who for nine years has lived on the block where the shooting took place, said bicycle police officers as well as Revenue Department workers are out at least twice a month looking for missing front plates, expired stickers and other violations.
Here is the Sun-Times report.
SOUTHEAST SIDE | Witness says worker threatened with 2-by-4 before shots fired
By MIKE THOMAS
Lamont Brown, who “junks” and works on old cars, saw the gold, old-model Buick LeSabre Custom parked near the corner of East 84th Street and South Dante for “like a year or two, and nobody ever moved it or touched it.”
Someone touched it Monday — a city Revenue Department worker trying to apply a Denver boot.
And now the car’s owner is suspected of shooting the city employee.
Officials weren’t releasing names of the suspect or victim late Monday.
“We obviously know who we’re looking for,” said police spokeswoman Monique Bond.
According to police, the revenue worker was shot in the lower back around 10:40 a.m. Monday and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was in serious condition, Bond said.
Roofer Herman Maciel said he and his crew saw the incident unfold as they repaired a roof across the street.
Maciel said the car’s owner first threatened the city worker with a 2-by-4. When the worker ignored his threats, Maciel recalled, the owner “ran into the house and got a gun and started shooting.”
Maciel said he heard the gun fire five times and saw two men running from the scene.
“One of them was running that way,” Maciel said, pointing east down 84th, “and the guy with the gun was running behind him.”
The violence comes at a time when the city is considering lowering the threshold for booting from three tickets to two.
As he watched a flatbed tow truck haul the vehicle away Monday, Brown told of his interest in buying it. As recently as two weeks ago, Brown said, he left notes on the car inquiring about purchasing it.
