Streeterville paintball attack caught on video, 3 attacks reported in short period of time

Eric Horng Image
Friday, October 25, 2019
Streeterville paintball attack caught on video, multiple attacks reported
Several paintball attacks have been reported in Logan Square and Streeterville, one of which was caught on camera early Tuesday morning.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Several paintball attacks have been reported in Logan Square and Streeterville, one of which was caught on camera early Tuesday morning.

The first two attacks happened in Streeterville. A third happened a short time later in Logan Square. In the attack caught on camera, a man barely escaped injury as his car was shot up.

It happened without warning, the victim said. The sound of paintballs hitting the car and the image of the shooter hanging out the window are still shocking to him.

"Initially when the pellets hit my car, and I heard it, and I kind of felt the vibration, I didn't even know what happened," said Arman, who did not want to share his last name. "It didn't even come to my mind that it could have been somebody shooting my car."

Arman said he was sitting in his car on Ontario near McClurg at the time of the attack. The paintballs hit the rear and side of his car, cracking a taillight cover and almost coming through his driver-side window.

"They were definitely aiming toward me," he said.

Arman is not the only victim in the area. Around the corner, minutes earlier, another man was hit in the face by a paintball.

Arman said he tried unsuccessfully to get the vehicle's license plate, following the four people in the white Chevy Equinox onto Lake Shore Drive as he called 911. He told the dispatcher the car had Florida plates and that someone inside was pointing a gun outside the window.

Eventually he lost them on the city's northwest side, not far from where a woman was hit in the face by a paintball in Logan Square minutes later.

"They clearly are looking to start trouble with people," Arman said. "They're not scared of the consequences."

ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke with the Logan Square victim on the phone Thursday. She said she was nearly blinded by the paintball pellet and is still recovering from the attack.