Do You Feel Safe on Chicago Expressways After 2 Fatal Shootings in Almost 7 Hours?

CHICAGO, IL — Mornings for Chicagoans these days means waking up to the updates tallying the night's gun violence throughout the city and who was wounded or killed in those incidents.

On Thursday, the somber news that provided the backdrop to people's morning involved a couple being shot as they were driving to breakfast around 5:30 a.m. on the westbound Eisenhower Expressway, near Laramie Avenue on the West Side.

Jonathon Ortiz, a 22-year-old aspiring rap artist who went by the stage name John Doe, was killed when bullets ripped through the white Jeep Commander he was driving, according to the Chicago Tribune. His girlfriend, Alexis Garcia, also 22, was wounded by the gunfire and still is in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.

But that shooting was only a grim prelude as tragedy and violence struck again before the morning was out. About seven hours later and less than a mile to the west, bullets riddled another vehicle traveling along Interstate 290.

RELATED: 2 Shot, 1 Killed on Eisenhower Expressway Thursday Morning

Devon Almon, 23, was shot at about 11:50 a.m. as he was riding in a vehicle traveling eastbound on the Esienhower, near the Central Avenue exit. The driver wasn't injured in the shooting, and she drove Almon to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where he was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later.

Police are investigating both shootings, but authorities don't believe they are related despite being separated by very little time and distance.

Even with Chicago's brutal summer that pushed the city's murder rate past 500 so far for the year, Thursday's expressway shootings have left residents with a chilling reminder of the deadly randomness of the gun violence plaguing the city.

"The fact is the shootings are so high in Chicago right now, it’s only natural that they would spill over," Gov. Bruce Rauner told CBS Chicago. "There are a lot of incidents where people are coming on and off ramps that were having interactions at a gas station, or some local store, and then the event spills over onto the expressway."

RELATED: Man Killed in 2nd Shooting on Eisenhower Expressway

That collateral damage has made some Chicagoans fearful of traveling on certain city roadways, and those residents went on social media to express their shock over the fatal Eisenhower shootings.

The incidents Thursday marked the 43rd and 44th shootings on Chicago-area expressways this year, the Tribune reports. The year-to-date total for 2016 already surprasses last year's number of shootings, which was 38, the report added.

In fact, on the same day when two people were killed in I-290 shootings, two other individuals were arrested in a nonfatal shooting over the weekend on the interstate in Oak Park, according to Illinois State Police. Norris A. Stevenson, 26, and Joenglish L. Lewis, 30, were charged with the aggravated discharge of a firearm. They are accused of firing shots Sept. 25 at the I-290 Harlem Avenue ramp. No one was hurt in the shooting.

"How much longer can the citizens of Chicago expect to be terrorized?" Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin said in a statement Thursday posted to his Facebook page. The Eisenhower runs through the 1st District, which Boykin represents. "Our leaders owe us an answer. … [P]eople continue to be struck by bullets in broad daylight, on streets and roads that should afford all citizens equally safe passage."

YOUR TURN: Have Thursday's shootings made you more fearful to travel on Chicago-area expressways? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section.

Photo via Shutterstock

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