Man, 74, hit by paintball in Chicago's East Lakeview community

A 74-year-old man was hit by a paintball in Chicago's East Lakeview community on Wednesday night, and police were the following morning for the person responsible.

At 9:45 p.m., the man was driving in the 600 block of West Diversey Parkway, near the five-way intersection with Clark Street and Broadway, when he felt a sharp pain and found paint splatter on his arm.

The paintball strike caused a minor abrasion, police said.

The man was treated by Chicago Fire Department medics and did not go to the hospital, police said.

While paintball attacks have not been in the crime headlines in any significant way lately this Halloween season, they have come in major waves around Halloween in the past.

A rash of paintball attacks happened all across the city and beyond in October 2020 – from the downtown area to Oak Park, Chatham, Mount Greenwood, and the University of Chicago campus.

The terrorizing continued the following year, with several more attacks in 2021. Reports of paintball attacks last year around this time were fewer, though Chicago Police did say multiple CPD vehicles parked in front of the Central (1st) District station were hit with paintballs.

In 2023, a pregnant woman was struck and seriously injured with a paintball on Halloween in the Chatham neighborhood.