CHICAGO (CBS) — It occurred within the blink of a watch.
As CBS 2’s Marissa Parra reported, diners dove for canopy after they have been focused by somebody with a paintball gun in Wicker Park this week. The victims thought they have been being shot with an actual gun. Within the warmth of the second it’s arduous to inform the distinction.
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A younger girl strolling her canine on the road is pelted with paintballs. It was simply certainly one of three paintball assaults within the neighborhood.
“I might inform they have been youthful simply by the truth that they have been laughing,” mentioned Tayor Mogged. “I might hear them after they have been driving away they have been laughing.”
Laughing, as they shot her with a paintball gun, hanging her within the again as soon as. The opposite 5 shells missed, simply narrowly lacking her face.
“I used to be strolling my seventh-month-old mini dachshund. If they’d have shot her, she most likely could be severely injured,” Mogged mentioned.
Moggerd couldn’t see faces, however she might see a darkish coloured SUV.
“A darkish coloured crossover with a dude hanging out the window with a gun.”
Brett Robinson was simply minutes away eating exterior.
“All you hear is psh-psh-psh-psh. That’s when everyone began screaming,” Robinson mentioned. “We noticed glass flying and folks diving and ducking.”
He mentioned it occurred so quick, nobody knew within the second whether or not or not it was an actual gun.
“I felt one thing hit me within the shoulder, one thing hit me within the foot. One girl bought hit within the mouth. One of many women, who we expect was pregnant, she bought hit within the again,” Robinson mentioned.
Not one of the victims wanted to be taken to the hospital, however all of them are left questioning who did this and why.
“Somebody’s on the market attempting to instill concern and that’s the disappointing half about residing in Chicago now,” Robinson lamented.
A 3rd assault occurred simply blocks away. Police received’t say in the event that they assume all three are associated. Earlier this summer time, a number of individuals have been hit with paintballs in Mount Greenwood.
Final fall, Chris Trani had a scar on his face as he talked with CBS 2’s Jermont Terry. The accidents have been left behind after a bunch of men in a white sport-utility automobile sprayed him with paintballs whereas he was using a bicycle off Sheffield Avenue within the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
“Somebody yelling, ‘Hey man!’” Trani mentioned. “And I look over and proper then, they began capturing me within the face.”
Similar attacks have been reported final fall from the Loop and Streeterville to West City and Oak Park, and likewise on the College of Chicago campus. In Chatham final fall, a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver was injured in a paintball assault.
Proper before Halloween in October 2019, Chicago additionally noticed the same uptick of random assaults.
One man’s dashcam captured the sounds, and a picture of somebody hanging out the again window with a protracted paint gun – additionally from a white SUV – at Ontario Road and McClurg Court docket in Streeterville nearly precisely a 12 months in the past.
