CHICAGO (CBS) — An 18-year-old has been charged with attempted murder in a shooting that wounded a 2-year-old boy and a 32-year-old man one week ago in West Humboldt Park.
Police said Miguel Avelar, of the North Austin neighborhood, was identified as the gunman who shot both victims on July 13 in front of a home on the 1500 block of North Tripp Avenue.
The man was shot in the face the 2-year-old was shot in the left leg. Both self-transported to AMITA Health Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, but they were later transferred to Stroger Hospital of Cook County in critical condition.
Avelar is charged with two counts of attempted murder, and is due to appear in bond court Tuesday afternoon.
CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar spoke with a neighbor who has lived in Humboldt Park for more than 40 years, just blocks from where the shooting happened.
“That happens every night, every day – every day, every night, you see someone get killed around here in this neighborhood – the West Side,” said neighbor Eduardo Izquierdo. “And we don’t have, we don’t see many police presence around here.”
When asked if that bothered him, he Izquierdo said it definitely did.
“I’m afraid to come outside – especially at nighttime – because I don’t know if somebody’s going to kill me,” he said. “There’s too many guns and there’s too many shootings, every night.”