Max Lewis, 20, a student at the University of Chicago, died Sunday after being hit in the neck by a stray bullet last week while riding a train home from a summer internship.
Lewis was the latest victim of rampant shootings in the city, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Local NBC affiliate WMAQ-5 reported:
Max Lewis, 20, was shot in the neck while riding a CTA Green Line train in Washington Park on the South Side Thursday. He was initially transported in critical condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
A bullet apparently crashed through the window of the train, striking Lewis. He was not the intended target, law enforcement said.
Lewis, who was in his third year at the University of Chicago, was on his way home from a summer internship in the downtown area when the shooting occurred. The 20-year-old passed away on the Fourth of July, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“He did nothing wrong,” said Zach Cogin, Lewis’ best friend and roommate. “He wasn’t walking into a bad area, he wasn’t doing something he shouldn’t have done. He was working an internship and took public transportation that thousands of millions of people take in the city.”
The weekend that followed that shooting was among the deadliest in recent weeks, with over 100 shot and 17 killed.
A Chicago Public Schools principal and her six-year-old daughter are recovering after being shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting that occurred during a block party on the Fourth of July.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported: “A gray SUV drove down the 100 block of East 119th Street and sprayed the crowd of about 50 people — including at least 15 children — with bullets, Dale and Chicago police said.”
Recently, a visiting student, Anat Kimchi, was stabbed to death in the city, apparently by a homeless person. And Yasmin Perez and Gyovanny Arzuaga, parents of two young children, were murdered in a road rage incident last month.
Murders are up 12% over the same period last year, and Major Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown are coming under increasing criticism from residents.
Another University of Chicago student, Ilan Naibryf, 21, is missing in the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.