Chicago shooting: 1 charged after ambulance with patient inside shot on North Side, police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A suspect charged after Chicago police said he shot up an ambulance after it did not get out of his way Wednesday night on the North Side.

The incident occurred in the 2600-block of North Hamlin Avenue at about 9:30 p.m. Police said a 79-year-old patient was inside the ambulance during the shooting and was not injured.

Chicago Fire Department Ambulance 48 was already back in service Thursday morning, with bullet holes still riddling the corner.

"About 9:15, an ambulance pulls up across the street and they were here for maybe ten minutes before they brought a guy and put him in the back of the ambulance," a neighbor said. "A guy in a white car pulls up behind him and starts honking. He wasn't waiting long. He starts honking and tries to open the driver's side door and bangs on the window."

That neighbor said the suspect was trying to get the ambulance to move, even trying to get inside himself. When he walked back to his car before firing at least six shots and drove away.

"Yeah he did shoot at the ambulance," the neighbor said. "The bullets landed in the back door. We saw them."

Police said they later arrested a man, driving the same car neighbors saw at the scene.

Now 39-year-old Ricard Vazquez is charged with two felonies and violation of parole in connection with the shooting.

"It's not common, not in this neighborhood and not on this street," the neighbor said. "Within a mile, maybe. Not here though."

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