Man reports being shot multiple times in gang-related incident in Portage Park area

by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI

A man was shot in an apparent gang-related incident at about 12:15 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, in the 4200 block of North Milwaukee Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.

The 26-year-old man reported at Community First Medical Center that he was with his friend at the Stained in Pain tattoo parlor, 4211 N. Milwaukee Ave., when two men entered the business, exchanged looks with them and left, according to police. The man said that once they left the business, one of the men fired a gun at them, police said.

The man was admitted to the hospital in serious but stable condition at with multiple gunshot wounds to the upper torso, and he later was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital, police said. A friend reportedly drove the man to the hospital.

However, the owner of the shop reported that one of the men got a tattoo and the other received a piercing and that they both left the business. He said that the alleged shooters never entered his shop.

"I have cameras in here, and I don’t want people to think that it’s not safe in here," the owner said. "There was a girl in here and I guess she started texting someone and they had left, and they were maybe a block away and a car came up and they started shooting at them, that’s what I heard."

The March 24 incident follows the fatal shooting of a teen in a gang-related incident in the 5800 block of West Patterson Avenue on March 15.