Man charged with firing gun from Lincoln Park roof, police say

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 27-year-old man has been charged with two felony counts of discharge of a firearm in connection with an incident involving gunfire from a 12-story apartment building in Lincoln Park, police said.

Peter Vitale turned himself in Tuesday, police said, and faces a felony count of aggravated discharge of a firearm and felony count of reckless discharge of a firearm.

A SWAT team was called around 3 p.m. Sunday to the 2700-block of North Pine Grove Avenue. A two-block area near North Pine Grove and West Wrightwood avenues were saturated by police investigating what police had initially believed was an active shooter situation. Some residents thought the gunshots were fireworks.

"I heard maybe five shots fired, sounded like more. I could tell some echoes, than like a 10-second pause and then five more," said Sam McIntire, who lives in the neighborhood.

Jeff Kemp said his neighbor saw a man and woman from the window of her high-rise window.

"She saw two people on the roof. She saw a motion go up in the air and that is when she heard the shots," Kemp said.

The pair was long gone by the time the police arrived, but a roof surveillance camera captured them. Police then tried to identify the pair by showing building tenants their picture.

Police said this is an isolated incident and believe they went to the roof to test a gun, which is something residents say is stunning given the density in this neighborhood.

"There's places you can go do that, it's amazing someone would be that moronic to do that in a highly populated area, any part of the city," Kemp said.

No injuries were reported.

Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.