Ald. Joe Moore witnesses deadly shooting on North Side

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Alderman Joe Moore witnessed a deadly shooting on a North Side street and says it was something he will never forget.

Moore said that what he witnessed bothered him on many levels, not the least of which was what appeared to be the shooter's young age.

"This was a bustling commercial strip and it was the last thing I was expecting to see," Moore said.

Before Saturday, the 49th Ward alderman had never witnessed a shooting take place, let alone a fatal one. But as he was walking along Devon near Glenwood talking to constituents in the middle of the day, that's exactly what happened.

"Until you do that, you don't really realize how incredible and how senseless it is," he said.

Even more senseless is the fact that the victim, a 28-year-old identified as William Lewis, who had recently moved to Rogers Park, was apparently mistaken for someone else by the shooter. Moore says he saw the teenager shooting at a group of youths running away from the scene but was too shocked to clearly identify him.

"All I was focused on was that this kid was carrying a large weapon," Moore said. "He looked quite young. In fact, probably younger than my 17-year-old son, which had an impact on me as well.

As a public official, Moore says he's all too aware of the gun violence that affects large swaths of the city, but he admits that having it happen in front of him, in a neighborhood not accustomed to shootings brought the issue home in an unexpected way.

"By the time we came back to the scene, one of the residents of the building immediately adjacent to the sidewalk was out there with a brush and water and bleach cleaning the sidewalk," he said. "That's something no one should have to do, not in any neighborhood in this city."

Police are not saying much about the shooting, except to say it is an ongoing investigation. Ald. Moore said there were several witnesses to the shooting beside himself and is hopeful an arrest will be made soon.