Sixth Ave resident Cathy Rossmiller told the assembled Village Board of Trustees Monday night that two recent shootings in La Grange, and an alleged drug house in her neighborhood, had made her question the safety of letting her children walk the streets.
Thom Rae, publisher of www.everythinglagrange.com, recalls the first shooting, which occurred Nov. 12 between two young men along 47th St between 6th Ave and La Grange Rd:
It was a gangland-style shootout, one of those seemingly random eruptions of violence, the kind you see reported all too often by the Chicago news media, but that usually happen in some downtrodden neighborhood far from La Grange.
The fact that such a terrifying event could erupt in broad daylight along a busy thoroughfare in front of several witnesses on an otherwise pleasant, autumn Saturday afternoon—and go unreported in the local newspapers—sparked a notion in my mind that La Grange might welcome a news venue that was more in touch with events and concerns within the community.
Had I not had an unreserved, front-row seat for that first shootout, I wonder how or even if I might ever have learned about it.
I had picked up a few things that afternoon at the 7-Eleven on 47th St and La Grange Rd and was heading home, intending to take my usual route east along the sidewalk that hugs the south side of 47th St. Reaching the sidewalk, I found it blocked by a young man who stood facing east, near the privacy fence that separates the 7-Eleven's parking lot from the back yard of the adjoining house on the southwest corner of 6th and 47th. The man had emerged moments before from a dark-colored sedan that stopped suddenly as it entered the parking lot from 47th St.
The man was screaming at a second young man, who stood facing him from a spot on the sidewalk some 30 yards east, roughly where the fenceline ends when it meets the home's side-access driveway. This second man was wearing a bright yellow jacket of a make, a police officer later told me, favored by a certain Chicago street gang.
The first man was taunting the second man, spewing epithets and obscenities at him. Then I heard him shout, "Show me your gun! If you got a gun, m-----f-----, use it!" As I was now standing about ten feet directly behind the man, I felt a tingling come over me. Call it Spidey Sense, whatever. I instinctively started trotting across 47th St, away from any probable line of fire, but with a full view of any action that might transpire.
No sooner had I reached the north side of the street when I heard the crack of gunfire. The man in the yellow jacket indeed had a gun. He was now firing it, holding it high above his head, his gun hand arched forward in the manner of someone who has watched too many Hollywood gang-banger movies. He fired at least three shots in quick succession, possibly four, towards his assailant, the first man, who retreated quickly behind the west end of the privacy fence, aside the 7-Eleven parking lot. Beyond where the first man and I had been standing, at the intersection where 47th St meets La Grange Rd, traffic typical for a Saturday afternoon passed through the intersection.
While I was now across the street from the action, I didn't know what direction it might take. I ran into the front yard of the home on the northeast corner of 6th and 47th and crouched behind a large tree.
From that vantage point, I looked back across 47th St. By this time, the man in the yellow jacket had ceased shooting and was running towards a sedan that appeared to be waiting for him. The car was parked southbound on 6th Ave at the curb in front of the house on the southwest corner, directly across from my position. I didn't recognize the make of the sedan but I could see clearly the Illinois license plate and number. I figured if there was anything I should commit to memory, it was that number.
Then the man who had provoked the confrontation came running east from the 7-Eleven parking lot along the south sidewalk. He too now had a handgun and was firing in the direction of the first shooter, whom he could not see because of the fence and the house beyond it.
By the time the first man cleared the fence line, the man in yellow had entered the waiting sedan and it began speeding south down 6th Ave. Once past the house, the second shooter stopped, squared himself and fired at least two shots down 6th Ave, across several front yards, at the fleeing vehicle.
With the fleeing car out of range, the second shooter turned back towards 47th St, appeared to survey his surroundings and crossed to the north side of the road, walking calmly and tucking the gun into his pantline. He was coming in my general direction but angled towards the northeast corner, directly across 6th Ave from the yard where I was crouched behind the tree. He began walking north along the sidewalk on that side. When he was in front of the second residence, the car from which he initially emerged turned north onto 6th from 47th and pulled to the curb. The man got in and the car sped north on 6th Ave.
With the license plate number of the brown sedan still fresh in my mind, I entered it into my cell phone to preserve it. Now I heard sirens and within seconds several police vehicles converged on the scene.
I told the police what I saw. The police said the plate number was familiar, saying it belonged to a vehicle registered to a local "kid" with whom they had had several encounters.
I stayed at the crime scene about an hour. During that time I shot the above photograph of the crime scene. In it you see an officer searching for shell casings along the sidewalk and curb. Every shell found was covered with a styrofoam cup, some of which are visible in the photo.
At one point, officers asked if I could identify a young male that one squad car brought to the scene. I told them that he clearly was not one of the two shooters.
Before leaving the scene, I was told that the police or the prosecutor's office might contact me at a later date, but I had no further formal contact with anyone regarding the case.
I did, however, speak informally with a La Grange police officer several weeks later who said he had knowledge of the case. No one had been arrested he said because they could not tie anyone directly to the shooting. But they knew who was likely involved. He said a man with a bullet wound to his leg had showed up at La Grange Memorial Hospital not long after the shootout. But he wasn't talking.
When a man was arrested following a second shooting that occurred in January near the intersection of 48th St and 8th Ave, another officer I encountered said the two shootings were related. The second shooting was covered by the Suburban News following the arrest.
Our Web site did not yet exist, so I had no reason to make any formal inquiries on the shootings, but the idea of developing a community Web site that provided in-depth coverage of news and events in La Grange had been on my mind ever since I witnessed the first shooting in November.
Today it is a reality.
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