Congressional candidate and anti-violence activist Jahmal Cole says that he was shot at in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood on Tuesday.
Cole, the founder of the organization ‘My Block, My Hood, My City,’ said in an Instagram post that he was shot at in the neighborhood on Tuesday, and says that he was shot in the arm earlier this year.
“I’m not sure if I was an intended target today, or if it was a random shooting,” he said in the post. “This is how they get down nowadays. Regardless, this is unacceptable and the people of the First District deserve better.”
Cole says that he suffered superficial injuries after diving under a car, but said that he had thought initially that he had been shot in the neck.
According to Chicago police, multiple gunshots were fired just after noon in the 1500 block of East 53rd Street. The gunshots did not strike any victims, but damaged multiple vehicles and hit two businesses, authorities said.
Chicago police also reported two other attacks that left two men dead in the area on Tuesday. In the first incident, a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the leg during a physical altercation in nearby Washington Park, located in the 5300 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue.
Police say the man was taken to an area hospital, and was pronounced dead.
Local
Just before 2 p.m. Tuesday, a 24-year-old man was killed in an attempted robbery in the 900 block of East 54th Street, near the University of Chicago campus.
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That man was walking in the area when he was approached by an assailant, who got out of a vehicle, pulled out a weapon and demanded property from the victim. The gunman then opened fire, striking the victim in the chest.
He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
University officials say that the victim, whose name has not been released, was a recent graduate of the school, and that the shooting occurred off-campus.
After multiple violent incidents Tuesday, Cole says he is grateful to be alive after he was shot at, but says it hammers home the reason he is running for office.
“I’m a candidate for U.S. Congress and was just shot in the very same district I am running to represent,” he said. “I had to dive under a car and then run for my life. The worst part about this is that I know I’m not the only one who has had to do so. I know that there are hundreds of kids and adults who have gone through the same thing or worse, and have no way of dealing with the trauma that they face.”
