Alderman promises safer community after woman gunned down in Streeterville

FOX 32 NEWS - A woman is gunned down in a city neighborhood not used to seeing violence. The woman was shot Sunday morning in Streeterville while standing with an acquaintance. She died at a nearby hospital.

Now, a Chicago alderman is calling for changes.

The crime in Streeterville is pretty low, and the alderman who represents the area says he wants it to stay that way. That’s why he says he's acting now.

“I was actually sleeping and the shots woke me up,” said Tashika Eubanks, resident of Streeterville.

After growing up in a high crime area, it's a sound she's familiar with but not one she expected outside her Streeterville home. She asked us not to show her face on camera, but she says she heard several gunshots early Sunday morning in the 500 block of east Ohio that left a 25-year-old woman dead.

In the hours after the shooting, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly wrote a letter to residents promising a safer community.

“Alderman around this city need to get together and start figuring out what we're going to do about what's happening,” Eubanks said.

The letter pointed to specific requests. Among them, Reilly is asking city agencies to close the Ohio Street underpass between midnight and 6 in the morning.

The Ohio Street underpass is one of about 6. He explained his reasoning to FOX 32.

“The idea here is to restrict access to these pedestrian underpasses along the lakefront trail so that police can better manage fewer locations,” Alderman Reilly said.

The requests to agencies include adding real time police surveillance cameras nearby, with that effort to be bolstered by an added police presence in areas north of the Chicago River, where we saw patrols Tuesday night.

“I think by making these changes early on in the summer season before the huge crowd volumes arrive, that's the smart way to go,” Alderman Reilly said.

On the Streeterville block where a bullet hole sits in a furniture store window, the ideas are a welcome beginning.

“Nothing good goes on after 11 o'clock in this city, so it would be a lot safer around here.”

Reilly says closing the Chicago Avenue underpass is another possibility, and though he hasn't heard back from city agencies just yet, he's optimistic the underpass will be closed during those hours.