Nov. 14--The man in the Bulls jacket sat in the gateway of a West Englewood apartment building, disoriented and moaning.
"Why did you hop off the ambulance?" said the police sergeant standing over him.
"They were going to cut my jeans," said the man, sounding dazed. He had been shot in the knee a few moments earlier.
His girlfriend, Ebony Jackson, spoke up. "We'll get him to the hospital. He'll go," she said.
"I'm telling you, they're still going to cut your jeans," the sergeant said. "You want me to call back the ambulance?"
The man was now flat on his back, making high-pitched noises. He agreed to the ambulance.
The man, 24, had been shot about 4 a.m. Saturday while walking in the 5500 block of South Winchester Avenue on the South Side, according to police. He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in good condition.
Jackson said she was with him and a few others on their way home from a party when they heard the gunfire.
"We all ducked, but he dropped," said Jackson, 28.
A friend carried him into a nearby building, leaving tiny drops of blood all the way down the sidewalk. There were two big dark spots on either side of his knee, friends said, as if the bullet had gone straight through. They called 911, and he was brought out to the ambulance.
But when he was told that Jackson couldn't go with him on the way to the hospital, he got up and got off the ambulance.
"He was hurting, but he was like, man, f--- it ... we can catch the bus," she said. "He got off by himself. He got back in the house."
But when he said his leg was going numb, Jackson began to worry that the wound would get infected and brought him back outside to speak with police.
A few police cars were outside, though no crime scene was set up. The man lay on his back, where he mumbled to the sergeant about his jeans and finally consented to an ambulance. It came, he limped over and got inside.
Jackson borrowed a Ventra card from her cousin and asked for directions to Holy Cross Hospital.
"I was glad he didn't get shot in the head," she said.
Four other people were wounded in shootings since Friday morning, Chicago police said.
--At 11:50 p.m. Friday, two men ages 18 and 23 were shot in West Garfield Park on the West Side.
They were on the sidewalk in the 100 block of South Kostner Avenue when a van pulled up and someone inside fired shots, said Chicago police spokesman Officer Ron Gaines. The 18-year-old was shot in the leg, and the 23-year-old was shot in the abdomen. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital, and their conditions were stabilized.
--Two other men were shot about 9:40 a.m. in Lawndale on the West Side, police said.
A 40-year-old man was sitting in a parked car in the 2800 block of West Polk Street, and a 24-year-old man was standing outside. A red vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired shots, Gaines said. The two men were dropped off at Mount Sinai Hospital.
The 40-year-old was shot in the leg and grazed in the head. His condition was stabilized. The 24-year-old was shot in the hand and listed in good condition.
