CHICAGO (CBS) — A close call on the Dan Ryan Monday morning for a driver — when another driver started shooting at him.
It’s one of 128 Chicago-area expressways since the beginning of the year. That’s more than double the number of expressway shootings from last year.
CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot reports from the Dan Ryan with a frightening ride home from work for one man on Monday.
The man said he’s not only grateful that he’s alive, but fortunate that his daughter wasn’t with him. She’s usually, in the backseat.”
“It’s insanity! I mean, the city is, I mean, it’s always been kind of crazy but it’s getting worse.”
Michael McPherson owns a white SUV that now has four bullet holes on the back passenger door area. McPherson said he was the victim of road rage, near 63rd and the Dan Ryan just after 7:00 Monday morning.
“I didn’t let him cut me off. He pulled up next to me. He started talking, like he had the window up,” McPherson said. “I had the window up, so I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he was obviously aggressive, so I gave him the finger and pulled off.”
And that’s when McPherson, heard the gunshots.
“I noticed on my car, on the dash, it told me my tire was low and I slowed down a little bit and he pulled up alongside of me and let off another seven or eight rounds maybe?”
Two of the tires on his SUV, were also shot out. Six hours before McPherson was shot at, there was another shooting nearby on the Dan Ryan, near 61st Street.
At least six bullet holes are visible on the back passenger side door area, of a silver Infiniti.
Data from Illinois State Police showed the Dan Ryan expressway has had the most shootings this year, with a total of 40, followed by the Eisenhower, with 28.
“There are more shootings and homicides in those neighborhoods, adjacent to the expressways.”
Dr. Arthur Lurigio is a professor of criminology at Loyola University Chicago.
“People that are engaged in those violent behaviors would find it convenient to jump off and jump on those expressways,” Lurigio said.