Man shot after argument at Wauconda apartment, police say
A shooting that left one man wounded in Wauconda was prompted by an argument, police said Monday.
The 26-year-old victim, who was shot Sunday night, remained hospitalized but was expected to survive, Police Chief Patrick Yost said. No arrests had been made, but police were looking for three suspects.
The man was shot once in the chest, but the bullet didn't hit any vital organs, Yost said.
“(He was) incredibly lucky,” Yost said.
The shooting wasn't a random crime, Yost said. The victim may have known the suspects, Yost said, but investigators weren't sure.
The shooting occurred about 8:30 p.m. Sunday after three men forced their way into an apartment above a dance studio on the 100 block of South Main Street.
The victim has occasionally stayed in the apartment, Yost said.
Other people were in the apartment at the time, but no one else was hurt.
Police declined to say where the victim is being treated, citing concern for his safety.
The three men, all of whom appeared to be in their 20s, fled in a dark-colored sedan, police said. No other details about the suspects or their auto were available.
Wauconda resident JoAnn Freeman lives on Main Street, not far from the apartment where the shooting occurred. She heard police and fire vehicles as they headed to the scene Sunday night.
“I heard the sirens,” she told the Daily Herald in an email. “By the time I looked out my second-story window, there were police from Lakemoor, Tower Lakes (and) Wauconda. a fire engine and one ambulance.”
Freeman said she also saw a woman and three children escorted out of the apartment.
The shooting was the second in about a month in Wauconda. On April 7, a man armed with a gun was shot to death by police investigating a report of a stolen pickup truck.
That shooting occurred on the 100 block of Slocum Lake Road, a short walk from the site of Sunday's gunfire.
Wauconda police were cleared in the April 7 shooting.
The two cases are unrelated, Yost said.
Wauconda Mayor Frank Bart called the latest shooting “unfortunate and uncharacteristic.” He stressed the shooting wasn't random violence.
“I don't know that there's a cause for overall concern,” Bart said.