GRAND CROSSING — Police have arrested and charged a man for shooting and injuring migrants Saturday outside of the Grand Crossing (3rd) Police District station, including a woman who was holding her son in arms.
Around 3:40 p.m. Saturday, a person shot a 28-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man outside the police station in the 7100 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, police said. The shooter fled and soon struck a police officer’s vehicle, causing more injuries, police said.
Anthony Evans, 25, was arrested at the scene and charged with eight felony counts, including two for aggravated battery and two for aggravated DUI, police said.
A video of the incident shows a gunman firing shots at migrants on the sidewalk, many with their tents pitched outside the police station, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Yerlianny Romero, 28, an asylum-seeker from Venezuela, told Telemundo Chicago she was wounded in the buttocks while holding her young son. She had only been in Chicago for a week, she said.
Romero said she had been standing outside the police station with her son in her arms when the person pulled up in a Jeep and started firing shots, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“He started crying and screaming,” Romero said of her son in a Spanish-language interview with Telemundo.
The 24-year-old man injured in the shooting told Telemundo he still has a bullet in his leg, which aches in cold weather. He said he takes trips inside the police station to warm up and ease the pain when he can.
There are more than 3,100 migrants staying at police stations as they await sheltering assignments.
More than 18,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since busing to the city began in August 2022. The city has scrambled to open over 20 temporary shelters and contracted with a controversial security firm to build winterized tent encampments in a bid to clear out the police stations.
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