May 19--Jimmie Jackson's family relaxed when the paramedics finally arrived and started treating the 65-year-old in the ambulance for what they feared was pneumonia.
Until a bullet tore through the windshield.
"It scared me," said the soft-spoken Jackson, a retired muffler repair shop worker.
Then he thought about his 8-year-old granddaughter, Jasmine, playing outside and got angry. "I was upset. It makes me scared for her safety," Jackson said. "There's too much shooting in the neighborhood."
Jackson's family had called paramedics to their home in the 5600 block of South Aberdeen Street around 5 p.m. Sunday because Jackson wasn't eating and they worried he was suffering from pneumonia. Jackson is on dialysis and has a history of heart problems, family members said.
As two paramedics treated him in the back of the ambulance, shots rang out from down the block and shattered the windshield on the driver's side, according to the Chicago Fire Department and the family. A "large-caliber slug" landed on the floor of the ambulance, fire officials said.
"I heard six gunshots, and I'm like, 'They're too close,' " said Jackson's daughter, Reba Standley, who was inside the house cooking dinner.
She rushed outside to grab Jasmine, but Standley's two brothers had already done that.
"It happened so fast," Standley said. "When my baby came in, she laid on the floor. She was shaking.
"We all ran over to check on my dad," she said. She saw the window but was assured Jackson was not wounded. Another ambulance was called.
Standley thinks the gunfire came from as far as two blocks away -- from Morgan Street. She said she worries about her daughter's safety and doesn't let her ride her bicycle on the street.
"It's all messed up," she said.
Jasmine's great-grandmother said Jasmine had trouble sleeping Sunday night and was kept home from school Monday. "She was crying. ... Her granddaddy was in the hospital,'' said Daisy Jackson, 80. "Thank God nobody got killed."
Meanwhile, Jackson remained at St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center on Monday but hoped to be home by the evening. Asked if he planned to move from the neighborhood, he answered, "No."
Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner contributed.
