Woman flees gunfire after her car is surrounded by ATVs, motorcycles on Near North Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Imagine you're trying to drive home, and you're surrounded by more than a dozen people on ATVs and motorcycles.
Then, you back up and hit a motorcycle that is parked in the intersection, and you're met by gunfire.
As CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reported Wednesday, all that was the reality for one woman in the Sandburg Village on the Near North Side this week. The scene is steps from the Chicago History Museum, the Latin School of Chicago, the Cardinal's Mansion, and Gov. JB Pritzker's Chicago home.
The incident happened at 10:11 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Clark Street and Burton Place – a city block south of North Avenue. Video shows the woman in her dark green and white Mini Cooper being surrounded by at least 15 people on ATVs and motorcycles.
A friend told us off camera the woman in the Mini Cooper was trying to get around the group to drive home. She backed into one of the motorcycles that was parked at the intersection, and it fell to the ground.
At that point, one of the men pulled gun out and points it at the woman's windshield. Seconds later, at least four gunshots are fired.
The woman's car was hit three times by the gunfire. Fortunately, she was not injured and was able to drive away.
Le Mignot talked with a woman heading outside to walk her dog when the shooting happened.
"I was shocked! I was just shocked!" that woman said. "It was terrifying!"
The woman who witnessed the gunfire lives nearby. She agreed to speak with us if we didn't use her name.
"It looked like those bikers - they were trying to intimidate. That lady who was in the car was trying to avoid them," she said. "They were shooting at that woman, and that woman was so scared, probably - I can't even imagine. She's probably scarred for her life!"
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) said calls kept coming in to police about the group on ATVs and motorcycles on the lakefront and Magnificent Mile, before the gunfire.
"Riding on sidewalks, blowing lights," Hopkins said. "They were spotted earlier on the Lakefront Trail, terrorizing people jogging and riding their bikes."
Ald. Hopkins says he has submitted a request to the Chicago Police to try video and audio technology in use now in Knoxville, Tennessee on an experimental basis to monitor for off-road vehicles. The technology would alert police to large groups roaming the streets.
