A teenage boy was shot about a block from President Obama’s home, in the second such incident in the past week. The 17-year-old boy was shot in the leg and buttock in the 5000 block of South Woodlawn Avenue about 4:20 a.m., police said.
The shooting scene is about a block east of the heavily guarded street where the Obamas have a home in the Kenwood neighborhood. He was taken in “stable” condition to an unidentified hospital, according to police.
“Three blocks over, that’s it. Three blocks. He’s right there,” said Freeman Richmond, who lives on the next block on Drexel Boulevard.
Stephin Williams and his girlfriend were in their car around 2:30 a.m. in the 4900 block of South Drexel Boulevard, in the Kenwood neighborhood about three blocks northwest of Obama’s Chicago home on Greenwood Avenue. Two men walked up with a handgun and announced a robbery, police said.
When Williams attempted to fight, one of the males shot him multiple times.
Williams, 23, of the 4000 block of South Lake Park Avenue, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:10 a.m., according to Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
Richmond was driving home when he saw police swarming to the scene.
“When I came around the block, the kid was laying face down right there. He wasn’t moving,” Richmond told CBS 2’s Mike Puccinelli. “I paused for a minute and looked at him, and they finally picked him up and put him in the ambulance, and I drove on away.”
Even with the proximity to the heavily-guarded presidential residence, violence is not new to the area, Richmond said.