Boy shot at near Holmes School in Oak Park, 8:30 last night — you pass it on Chi Ave., lovely red brick building across Chi Ave. from a block of blocks with houses to grace any coffee table book about elegant living. School playground is half a city block extending west of the school, lots of state-of-art play equipment.

He was running from two in late teens. Shooter black, we may presume so are the other two but maybe not — Oak Park kids mingle a lot. The perps banged him on the head, he got treated at West Sub Hospital.

From comments:

* This is very disturbing. There are always children, families, tourists, people walking dogs at/near Holmes. It’s not a very well-lit area. In the past, I’ve also found used condoms and drug paraphrenalia under the playground equipment. Perhaps improving the lights would help deter such things. And I echo Ms. Schnierow’s comments [bemoaning recent Supreme Court “misinterpretation of the 2nd
amendment”].

* How fortunate this teen wasn’t killed. If he had had a gun, he probably would be dead.

* Ms. Schnierow, Your point assumes that the offender purchased his gun legally. You should acknowledge that crimes such as this are committed not by law abiding gun owners, but those without licenses and whose guns are probably stolen.

* Hard to rationalize this one away–8:30 at night is not late to be out. The Oak Park boy, or an uninvolved bystander (someone walking a dog, or sitting in the window of a nearby house), could have been killed. I hope the police find the guys, quickly, and that they make a good case against them. Doing so is the best deterrence.

* This is simply unacceptable. Who were these kids? Where were they from? What were they doing there? What’s next, drive-bys?

* Ben [Meyerson], good reporting. And, it is refreshing to read in a crime report a FULL description (race) of the suspect, for the public to be aware & informed. Crime will only increase & it’s . . . becoming possible for crimes to occur in other areas besides the east side [abutting the city] & south side of Oak Park. This village needs to support the police dept. w/funds, and reduce other programs in order to do so, otherwise our quality of life & property values all go downhill.

* It was barely a month ago when the Tribune featured this neighborhood as “one of the 10 best neighborhoods in the nation”.

When it comes to crime, you find diversity of opinion here.  But one thing I don’t get: it was a fight, the story says.  But whose idea was it to fight, the two older guys, one of them armed, or the boy?  I’ve seen that goading, here in recent years and here 70 years ago, but 70 years ago the gun was unthinkable.

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Later: The above is from OakPark.com.  From Triblocal is this, about a guy in his back yard a mile or so almost directly south of Holmes School (a few blocks east, one east of Oak Park Ave.):

An Oak Park man was punched and robbed by two teenagers who robbed him of $12, Oak Park police report.

The man was in his back yard on the 800 block of South Euclid Avenue at 5:33 p.m. Tuesday when two male teens approached him. One of the teens drew a handgun and demanded money, while the second punched the man in the mouth, police said.

The victim reached into his pockets and dropped the cash to the ground, where it was picked up by one of the teens. They fled the scene through an alley, according to police reports.

I like the part about his throwing the money on the ground, if he threw it but didn’t just drop it, but the rest of it I don’t like at all.  This block is just east of Oak Park Ave., a fairly bustling commercial strip, with a good-sized grocery store and several eateries and a bank.  Just north of the Eisenhower, where there’s a Blue Line stop.