Sept. 17--Amelia Williams stood on her porch holding the day's mail and a burned-out cigarette, talking with a neighbor about the shooting here Wednesday night.
"It's sad a man can't come home after a hard day's work and go inside his home with groceries without getting shot down before he can come in the door," the 74-year-old resident of the 11500 block of Church Street said Thursday morning.
A Chicago Police Department civilian employee, John Buckner, 59, was with his wife Wednesday around 8:45 p.m. when three people on bicycles rode by and fired shots, police said.
Blood from the shooting dotted the sidewalk leading to the front door of the Buckner family home until a neighbor hosed it down Thursday morning.
Officers searched a van across the street from the home and then let three men they had been questioning go. A CPD squad car returned to his fixed post a little farther up the block.
Williams had been in her house dozing off while watching a debate when she heard the gunfire.
She wasn't sure at first -- she said it sounded like "gangbusters" just outside her window, but she checked around her house and upstairs to make sure nothing had fallen.
She peeked outside. It looked quiet. She didn't know about the shooting until a neighbor called and said "Mr. Buckner had been shot," Williams said.
"He was just a very beautiful person," she said. "He was a member of the block club. Just beautiful people, you couldn't want better neighbors."
The block club formed sometime in the last decade, Williams said. A sign at the north end of the block greets visitors to the one-way southbound street from 115th.
"We're trying to keep the neighborhood together, you know, trying to help each other out."
A 41-year-old man was also wounded in the shooting. He was struck in the ear and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized.
At least five other people were wounded by gunfire in Chicago since Wednesday evening:
--At 12:15 a.m., a 28-year-old man was shot in West Pullman, according to Officer Hector Alfaro, a spokesman for Chicago police. The man was in the 700 block of West 117th Place when two people walked up and fired, Alfaro said. The man was struck in the back and taken to Christ Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized.
--At 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, a 20-year-old man was shot in Lawndale, said Officer Amina Greer, a police spokeswoman. He was on a sidewalk in the 1600 block of South Karlov Avenue when he heard gunfire and realized he was shot, Greer said. He was struck on the left side of his upper back and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
--At 9:25 p.m., a 16-year-old boy was shot in West Englewood, according to Alfaro. The teen was in the 7300 block of South Winchester Avenue when three people walked up and started shooting, Alfaro said. The boy was struck in the right knee and taken to Christ Medical Center.
--At 8:50 p.m., a 38-year-old man was shot in the left leg in the 5600 block of South Hamilton Avenue in West Englewood, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, and his condition was stabilized, authorities said.
--At about 5:15 p.m., a 19-year-old man was shot in Roseland, police said. He was driving in an alley in the 1100 block of South Normal Avenue when shots were fired, Alfaro said. The man was struck in the back of the head and taken in critical condition to Christ Medical Center, authorities said.
