Police have charged a 16-year-old Evanston youth who they say is a street gang member with several felonies in connection with a shooting Wednesday afternoon in the 1700 block of Emerson Street.
The shooting victim, a 22-year-old Skokie resident, told police he had just gotten out of his car about 3:54 p.m. when a male walking along the sidewalk pulled out a handgun and fired several shots at him.
Evanston Police Cmdr. Joseph Dugan says the victim was hit once in the right thigh and was driven by an acquaintance to Evanston Hospital for treatment of a injury that’s not considered life-threatening.
Dugan says officers responding to the area stopped two male juveniles in the 1900 block of Darrow Avenue and recovered a .380 caliber Kel-Tec handgun from one of them.
Both juveniles were transported to the police department for further investigation, Dugan says. One was later released without charges, but the other now has been charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, two counts of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a firearm by a street gang member, no valid firearm owners identification card and reckless conduct.
He’s been transported to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center.
Update 12:30 p.m. 7/30/15: Cmdr. Dugan, in response to a question from Evanston Now, says the charges filed don’t directly address the injury to the victim of the shooting because the victim did not wish to participate in the prosecution.
They could be upgraded at a later time, Dugan says, but at this point without the injured party participating in the prosecution, they were the only charges that applied.
Thank you EPD
Great work in quickly apprehending this wayward youth.
How unfortunate, a 16 year old Evanston “street gang member with several felonies.”
Maybe EPD, City of Evanston and/or Cradle to Career will do an analysis to understand
when and why this young boy went astray, and our community can proactively intervene
when future situations and circumstances arise with other at risk youth.
Until then, EPD please keep up your great work.
EPD, City of Evanston and/or
EPD, City of Evanston and/or Cradle to Career??? Why? They're not responsible for that juvenile criminal? How about his parents. It's on them, not society. That's what's wrong with Evanston and our society in general. Make someone else clean it up/fix it. Cmon.
It’s very obvious that
It's very obvious that someone sent that child to carry out their garbage. People watch who you let your children associate themselves with. It's a sad situation children carrying guns shooting at people where are your parents?
Parents? Brushed off at that question!
I went to a gathering several months ago to discuss the topic of troubled youth in Evanston and how to deal with it and prevent it. I heard NO ONE speak of parental responsibility. I thought that was odd and finally asked for myself. They looked at me like I was an idiot, gave me a quick response and shut me down. The response I got was “we can’t depend on the parents, it’s not going to happen, our community has to be responsible for helping these youth”. I was so disappointed.
Where are the parents?
I agree that this boy's parents are accountable and share the primary responsibility, especially since he's 16. However, when you speak with teachers, social workers and others who work with youth in Evanston, you may be surprised and saddened to see many dysfunctional households and "kids raising kids."
My point is that as a community we can choose to live in the theoretical and 50's family approach to raising children with 2 parents and a secure job or you can realize the reality of today's youth, many of whom are growing up in poverty, being raised by a single parent, and are dealing with many challenging externalities that impact their social, emotional and educational development. We can also decide to follow ultra liberal approaches that place blame on different groups or we can decide to address the underlying causes and utilize programs and approaches that show tangible and measurable results.
More and more research shows that early intervention provides better outcomes and prevents problems rather than waiting until someone commits a crime and then our community and society try remedial programs that take time and money, yet demonstrate high levels of recidivism with wayward youth.
What do you suggest? or do you have another solution?
Should we focus more on the root problem?
I think we should focus more thought and energy on this part: "However, when you speak with teachers, social workers and others who work with youth in Evanston, you may be surprised and saddened to see many dysfunctional households and "kids raising kids."
It seems to me that even small postive impacts made here will have a larger payoff in better outcomes for famiies and the community overall.
Crime in Evanston
Bout time epd but don't stop there, guns are everywhere and its sad that they are in our youths hands. Too many followers and not enough leaders. Come on people wake up we can't play the blame game and point fingers we need to reach out to our youths our family's of these disruptive community's, stop shutting programs and centers down for our community that's helps the youths of Evanston, bring more jobs then watch the change in the future for our Evanston youths.