CHICAGO — Three shootings occurred overnight on Chicago-area expressways, according to Illinois State Police, leaving one person with serious injuries. The ongoing violence brought the total number of expressway shootings so far this year to 184.
The first shooting was about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday on the Eisenhower Expressway near Kedzie Avenue. One person was wounded and taken to a hospital with serious injuries, officials said.
Westbound lanes of the Ike were closed and traffic diverted to California Avenue while state police investigated. All lanes were reopened about 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
About 1:20 a.m. Thursday, a man reported that his rear windshield was shot out while he was fueling his vehicle at the gas pumps at the westbound Belvidere Oasis Mobile gas station off the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. No injuries were reported, but the ramp to the oasis was closed as troopers investigated.
Then, roughly six minutes later, state police responded to the southbound side of the Bishop Ford Freeway at 130th Street on Thursday at 1:26 a.m. to investigate another shooting with no injuries reported. Following an investigation, all lanes were reopened about 3:45 a.m., state police said.
The 184 shootings on expressways so far this year have far exceeded those in all of 2020, when there were 128 such shootings, according to state police data. And in 2020 there had been more than twice the number of shootings than the 52 expressway shootings in 2019. There were 43 in 2018, according to the state police.
The Tamara Clayton Expressway Act, which went into effect in January 2020, allocated $12.5 million for Illinois State Police to place high-resolution cameras along area roadways to deter and detect these sharply increasing shootings. Installation of the high-speed, license plate-reading cameras began more than a month ago.
Anyone who witnessed or has knowledge of the shootings is asked to contact state police at 847-294-4400. Callers can remain anonymous.
