Two men are still on the loose in Chicago today after robbing and shooting a senior citizen in broad daylight as the man was watering his front lawn.
A recording of the incident caught by a neighbor's security camera shows two men riding bicycles past 71-year-old Federico LaGuardia as he watered the lawn of his Marquette Park neighborhood home police said.
Shortly after the men pass, one of them turns around, wrestles LaGuardia to the ground and shoots him once in the abdomen after he fell to the ground. The man then rifles through LaGuardia’s pockets and takes his wallet before fleeing on his bike.
Despite his injuries, LaGuardia was able to stagger to his neighbor’s door and call for help. He was taken to Holy Cross Hospital and then transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital where he underwent surgery. Police said he is in fair condition but remains in intensive care.
"I heard the gunshot and I ran out here and he was, like, dazed in the street," said neighbor Lois Walker.
This is the latest attack in Chicago's deadliest summer in two decades, and community activists and members of the public are outraged.
"It's just absolutely ridiculous, you're not even safe in your own yard," said neighbor Teryeyah Griggs.
Violence over this past weekend in Chicago pushed to 488 the total of murders so far this year — surpassing the 481 homicides that the police department recorded for all of 2015. Nearly 230 homicides occurred over the summer alone. August's 90 homicides made it the deadliest single month in Chicago since June 1996.
"It’s not a police issue. It’s a society issue," Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Tuesday during a press conference. "Impoverished neighborhoods, people without hope do these kinds of things. You show me a man who doesn't have hope, I’ll show you a man who's willing to pick up a gun and do anything with it."
A $1,000 reward is being offered for solid information leading to the suspects.