May 04--The man and his son stood outside Express Grill early Wednesday, hunting for bullet holes in the white cinder block facade of their Pilsen carry-out restaurant.
"Time to get bulletproof glass," Alex Lazarevski, 54, told his son Tomislav.
Someone in a silver SUV had fired at a group of people at 18th and Halsted streets late Tuesday, right outside the grill. A 43-year-old man was shot in the chest and died on the scene. Another man was shot in the knee and taken to Stroger Hospital.
Lazarevski also owns an Express Grill in University Village. A 31-year-old man was shot and seriously wounded there in the early hours of March 27. Dozens of people stood outside in line for food as police investigated.
This time, there were no customers after the shots were fired near the Pilsen restaurant. The man hit in the chest collapsed in the middle of the street, and police covered his body with a white sheet. Family members identified him as Jesus Juarez, a father of three.
The only bystanders were two young men, witnesses who wandered in small circles inside the crime scene and nearby. They paused occasionally to lean against parked cars and cry.
Tomislav Lazarevski, 24, said he was working in the restaurant when he heard the gunshots, at least five.
They showed the restaurant's security video to police. It's grainy, he said, but it shows Juarez with a group of people as an SUV drives by. Someone inside the SUV must have called out to the group, Tomislav said, because at one point Juarez walked up to the car. As he got closer, someone inside fired shots.
Alex Lazarevski asked police if city cameras had captured anything. An officer pointed out a traffic camera at the intersection.
"A traffic camera? That's a dummy camera!" he told the officer. "Every time something happens, I've got to provide my (video). What good is it to have cameras if they're not going to work?"
Lazarevski got pushback from residents a few years ago when he wanted to open the grill in Pilsen, he said. People worried a 24-hour restaurant would attract crime.
But Lazarevski believes his place has made the corner safer, or at least has made it easier for police: The security cameras attached to the grill work better than the city cameras, he said, and he always cooperates with investigations.
Tomislav walked out of the grill and under the crime scene tape with a pot of hot coffee and began pouring for police officers and bystanders. The wind kicked up and knocked his stack of Styrofoam cups into the crime scene. One came to rest next to Juarez's body.
One of the young men at the scene approached Lazarevski with tears in his eyes, asking if he could go inside the restaurant and charge his phone.
Lazarevski looked confused until an officer told him the man was a friend of the victim. His face softened and he welcomed the man inside.
His friend, the other witness, crouched silently on the stoop of a nearby tamale restaurant. There was blood smeared on his white shoes.
A skinny man walked up to the crime scene and asked the police what had happened.
"A couple people got shot," one officer said. "One didn't make it."
"I wanted to get something to eat," the man said, nodding toward Express Grill.
"They've got one on Union," the officer replied.
