BLOODY NIGHT IN ROGERS PARK, CHICAGO

Chicago - October 13, 2007 - Around 9:30 Saturday night, several men were loudly arguing in an alley that runs between W. Morse Avenue and W. Lunt Avenue in the 1300 block (west). Moments later, a man was shot in the leg. (SEE VIDEO BELOW)

UPDATE: That was not the only shooting within the past 24 hours. At 3:00 Sunday morning, there was another shooting at the CTA Jarvis Station, just feet from 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore's office. (Jarvis is the next station north of Morse and is the first one south of Howard, the end of the Red Line.)

The witness told The Bench that he was unable to see the men, but heard them yelling at each other in threatening tones in a nearby alley. After a few minutes of this, he said, they took off running north toward Lunt Avenue.

What happened next is open to speculation, but it is clear that somebody was shot between 9:30 and 9:45 last night. This latest shooting is just one of many that have occurred in recent weeks in the troubled Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Police told The Bench last night that the victim was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital. His condition was not known. Police quickly rounded up a number of suspects and did an on-the-scene lineup, in which witnesses were asked to pick out the shooter or shooters. North Glenwood Avenue was reopened by 11:20 p.m.

Six nights earlier, rival drug gangs fought it out with bats and knives at the same corner, which is a frequent site for drug sales, prostitution, shootings and public drunkeness.

Residents can take comfort, however, in the fact that Alderman Joe Moore assures us that crime is going down in the 49th Ward.