О борьбе с сегрегацией
Mar. 6th, 2005 07:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdwatcherThree shot, four beaten at party
By Vivian Malli
Ex-convict Trumain Beck, 20, was one of three armed suspects arrested for a brutal attack on several fraternity partygoers, which left three young men with gunshot wounds and two young women and two other young men with bodily injuries outside 2445 W. Harrison St. around midnight on Feb. 10.
A week after the crime, police charged Beck, who resides on the 3100 block of West Douglas Boulevard, with six counts of armed robbery, three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, and four counts of aggravated battery without a firearm. Two other suspects remain at large, although detectives believe they have identified one of the remaining offenders.
"They shot me after I gave them my money" said an 18-year-old who was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital for a bullet wound that fractured his left femur when he fled from the assailants, who accosted him and two companions in the rear gangway of a popular site that hosts weekly University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) fraternity parties.
Two of the victim's friends, 19-year-old brothers, were treated at Stroger Hospital for gunshot wounds to the groin and left thigh.
The offenders pistol-whipped an 18-year-old female's face and a 17-year-old girl's back when the women accidentally interrupted the robbery attempt on the three men after exiting through the back door of the party site.
The gunmen also inflicted head bruises on a pair of 18-year-old males who were departing the evening party, which charged a $10 cover for attendees, who were mostly UIC students and "neighborhood kids from Taylor Street," according to one of the victims.
"We were walking over to [the] party when they caught us as we were going up the stairs, and they told us to get on the floor," said the 18-year-old gunshot victim. "We threw our money on the floor. There were a couple of shots fired because they got nervous. When the girls came out of the back door, the guys grabbed them and started beating them up. They were screaming. Then a guy turned and shot my friend in the leg. I started running, and they shot me. I didn't feel it. My adrenaline was pumping."
Armed with two guns, the assailants stole cash and a cell phone and immediately fled from the scene before police officers arrived. One of the wounded victims ran into the party to get help before realizing that officers already were at the crime scene.
"We got lucky," said one of the 19-year-old victims. "The bullets were close to some vital organs, and they missed. I got shot in my left [thigh] just an inch from my waistline, and the bullet traveled through the right side of my body. My brother was shot close to the groin."
The location of the fraternity party has a reputation for being a hot spot for trouble. "It's not a good area," said a victim, whose friend was robbed of a cell phone last summer on Polk Street, within blocks of the parly's location.
Police officers and medics attending the crime scene questioned the victims' judgment for visiting the notorious location. One victim complained, "I don't feel that I shouldn't go there just because I'm white. When they put me in the ambulance, [the medic] asked me, 'What the hell were you doing there?' Well, why don't I belong there?"
Police scolded one of the wounded men. "[The officers] said, 'You should stay where you guys are from.' We're white, and they know that we're from white neighborhoods. But what they're saying is basically like segregation.
"If a black person got shot by one of us, [the police] wouldn't say that they shouldn't have been in the neighborhood," said the victim.
Within a week of the shooting, all wounded victims were released from the hospital. "I got a brace, and I'm on crutches. I'm just happy that I'm alive," said a recovering victim.
As for future parties, the victims expressed reluctance about returning to the area. "I have mixed feelings," said a 19-year-old victim, "It's hard to say. It's a hard thing," His friend, also wounded, expressed similar feelings. "I don't think my parents want me to go to parties there after that. They're worried. They don't want me out."
With two of the perpetrators not yet caught, the victims hope police will succeed in solving the case. "I want them to be punished to the full extent of the law. I would never thought this would happen to me and my friends," said one victim.
Detectives are continuing their interviews with the victims and have declined to comment on the case since the incident still is under investigation. Beck appeared in bond court on Feb. 22.
GAZETTE, an independent community newspaper since 1983.
By Vivian Malli
Ex-convict Trumain Beck, 20, was one of three armed suspects arrested for a brutal attack on several fraternity partygoers, which left three young men with gunshot wounds and two young women and two other young men with bodily injuries outside 2445 W. Harrison St. around midnight on Feb. 10.
A week after the crime, police charged Beck, who resides on the 3100 block of West Douglas Boulevard, with six counts of armed robbery, three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm, and four counts of aggravated battery without a firearm. Two other suspects remain at large, although detectives believe they have identified one of the remaining offenders.
"They shot me after I gave them my money" said an 18-year-old who was treated at Mount Sinai Hospital for a bullet wound that fractured his left femur when he fled from the assailants, who accosted him and two companions in the rear gangway of a popular site that hosts weekly University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) fraternity parties.
Two of the victim's friends, 19-year-old brothers, were treated at Stroger Hospital for gunshot wounds to the groin and left thigh.
The offenders pistol-whipped an 18-year-old female's face and a 17-year-old girl's back when the women accidentally interrupted the robbery attempt on the three men after exiting through the back door of the party site.
The gunmen also inflicted head bruises on a pair of 18-year-old males who were departing the evening party, which charged a $10 cover for attendees, who were mostly UIC students and "neighborhood kids from Taylor Street," according to one of the victims.
"We were walking over to [the] party when they caught us as we were going up the stairs, and they told us to get on the floor," said the 18-year-old gunshot victim. "We threw our money on the floor. There were a couple of shots fired because they got nervous. When the girls came out of the back door, the guys grabbed them and started beating them up. They were screaming. Then a guy turned and shot my friend in the leg. I started running, and they shot me. I didn't feel it. My adrenaline was pumping."
Armed with two guns, the assailants stole cash and a cell phone and immediately fled from the scene before police officers arrived. One of the wounded victims ran into the party to get help before realizing that officers already were at the crime scene.
"We got lucky," said one of the 19-year-old victims. "The bullets were close to some vital organs, and they missed. I got shot in my left [thigh] just an inch from my waistline, and the bullet traveled through the right side of my body. My brother was shot close to the groin."
The location of the fraternity party has a reputation for being a hot spot for trouble. "It's not a good area," said a victim, whose friend was robbed of a cell phone last summer on Polk Street, within blocks of the parly's location.
Police officers and medics attending the crime scene questioned the victims' judgment for visiting the notorious location. One victim complained, "I don't feel that I shouldn't go there just because I'm white. When they put me in the ambulance, [the medic] asked me, 'What the hell were you doing there?' Well, why don't I belong there?"
Police scolded one of the wounded men. "[The officers] said, 'You should stay where you guys are from.' We're white, and they know that we're from white neighborhoods. But what they're saying is basically like segregation.
"If a black person got shot by one of us, [the police] wouldn't say that they shouldn't have been in the neighborhood," said the victim.
Within a week of the shooting, all wounded victims were released from the hospital. "I got a brace, and I'm on crutches. I'm just happy that I'm alive," said a recovering victim.
As for future parties, the victims expressed reluctance about returning to the area. "I have mixed feelings," said a 19-year-old victim, "It's hard to say. It's a hard thing," His friend, also wounded, expressed similar feelings. "I don't think my parents want me to go to parties there after that. They're worried. They don't want me out."
With two of the perpetrators not yet caught, the victims hope police will succeed in solving the case. "I want them to be punished to the full extent of the law. I would never thought this would happen to me and my friends," said one victim.
Detectives are continuing their interviews with the victims and have declined to comment on the case since the incident still is under investigation. Beck appeared in bond court on Feb. 22.
GAZETTE, an independent community newspaper since 1983.
