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April 23, 2005
Drive by, bye-bye
Reflecting on the recent drive-by shooting in front of my apartment, I've finally come to the conclusion that it's time to move. Of course, everyone in my family seems to agree as the thousand phone calls I've received show. I suppose the handful of stabbings and armed robberies, the shooting down the street, and the bank robbery at the end of the street never really bothered me that much. When I couldn't get out of the front of my building because of the police line, though, something dawned on me.
First shot (camera, that is) out of my window
Apparently, a drug dealer/gang banger was being followed from the hood down my street by another car. When he stopped at the stop sign, the other car pulled along side of him and opened up. For once, the other gang bangers hit their mark. (Recall the shooting at Al's Italian Beef where 36 shell casings were found, and the victim was hit once in the leg--obviously no boy scouts doing the shooting there.) Full of holes, the guy tried to peel away and managed to swipe 6-8 cars parked along the street before lodging into another parked car sticking out a little further than the rest. The shooting car caught up and offed him for good. As he slumped over, he must have hit the volume control on his stereo, as the typical "kill the white man" gangsta rap started blaring. My cousin, hearing this, got off the couch and ran into my room thinking I was playing my music too loudly. To her surprise, she saw a herd of police cars (14) two rescue fire engines, and two ambulances. She woke me up, and I took pictures. The paramedics took the dead guy off slowly on a gurney. He must have gurgled or something, because they brought it up to a trot suddenly for a second or two before returning to a walk.
Police walking around
I watched an episode of Band of Brothers before bed that night, and when the shooting happened, I thought I was taking fire in my dream. I don't really recall how many shots were fired. I just remember a lot of loud noise followed by gangsta rap once I got up. I haven't been questioned by the police yet, but several of my friends in the neighborhood have. So that's that. Lake Shore East is looking good now.
More 5-0
The images are relatively blurred due to the slow shutter speed and lack of flash. I managed to kick the camera to ISO 1600. That helped a little, I suppose.
And here
Couldn't quite get the gurney in the picture because it was moving. It just showed up as a blur.
I'm so out of here.
Posted by Richard at April 23, 2005 03:06 PM
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