June 08--A man has been charged with pointing a gun at police, leading an officer to fire his gun early Sunday morning in the Logan Square neighborhood alongside the elevated Bloomingdale Trail, which officially opened this weekend, authorities said.
Rafael Corona, 29, was charged with crimes including felony aggravated assault of an officer after police said he pulled out a weapon about 12:05 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of North Talman Avenue and pointed it at officers. A police officer fired a shot in response, but no one was injured in the incident, police said.
Corona, who lives in the 1700 block of North Rockwell Street, also was charged with several other gun-related felonies and misdemeanor drinking alcohol on the public way, police said in a news release Sunday evening.
At the scene of the shooting early Sunday, police officers blocked off about a half-block of the one-way North Talman Avenue with yellow police tape. Officers also spread red police tape in front of one of the houses on the west side of the street.
Police officers found a gun on the ground near the cordoned-off house and were guarding it early Sunday morning.
Several nearby residents came out of their homes onto the sidewalk on Talman. Some stood on their porches and chatted in Spanish and English.
From time to time, just footsteps north of the scene, people walked, bicycled and skateboarded on the Bloomingdale Trail, also known as The 606. One of the trail's entrances, the Rockwell access ramp, is about a block east of the shooting scene.
Police said a gathering outside involving members of the Maniac Latin Disciples gang preceded the shooting incident.
Corona is scheduled to appear in bond court on Monday.
About two months ago, a block west of the shooting on Talman, a 24-year-old man was fatally shot around 2:55 a.m. April 8 in the 2700 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue.
The man, identified as Mikal Malik Johnson of the 1200 block of West Belden Avenue in Chicago, was walking in the area when an attacker came out of a light-colored vehicle and fired shots, striking the man in the armpit, police said at the time.
Chicago Tribune reporter Liam Ford contributed.
