NORTH CENTER — An apparent case of road rage in North Center Tuesday night led to someone firing seven shots at a driver — hitting no one but shattering two bottles of booze in the bar of a nearby bowling alley, witnesses said.

The dramatic scene played out at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 1900 block of West Irving Park Road.

Part of the drama — including the gunshots — was captured on an uninvolved driver’s dashcam video, which was posted to YouTube.

The aftermath left employees at Timber Lanes Bowling Alley at 1851 W. Irving Park Rd., cleaning up the mess made by a stray bullet.

“We lost a bottle of whisky and a bottle of brandy,” said employee George Clemen. “We wouldn’t have noticed the shooting had it not hit those bottles. Everyone was fine, but it was a little scary. Police were here and recovered one round. We think another round may have hit the building, but we won’t know until the snow melts probably.”

Bob Kuhn, Timber Lanes’ owner said the shot went through a wall.

“We had one bullet hit the northwest corner of the building, it went completely through the wall,” said Kuhn. “The bullets came from west to east, because that’s how they came to our building. I gotta think someone was shooting at a car going away from that intersection.”

Driver Mikey Shin caught the lead up to the shooting, and the sound of the shots on his dashcam.



The incident and Shin’s video, first reported by CWBChicago, shows the front end of a black car pressing up against the back bumper of a white car in the right westbound lane of the 1900 block of West Irving Park Road.

After Shin slows down to avoid hitting the rear, driver’s side door opening on the white car, both cars drive off. The cars appear to be touching or nearly touching as they head west.

The cars speed to the intersection of Irving, Damen and Lincoln avenues. The white and black cars arrive at a red light, and after about 10 seconds gunshots ring out.

Jennifer Bryk, a police spokesperson, said the shots were fired by a passenger from the white car — a Toyota Corolla. Apparently that passenger got out of the car, argued with the driver and then fired shots at the driver of the Corolla.



“The male passenger exited the white Toyota, produced a weapon and fired shots in the direction of the male driver,” Bryk said. “The male driver fled in the white Corolla, striking a Jeep.”



The alleged gunman ran off. Bryk said no injuries were reported.

Shin disputed some police details, saying the white car was a Chevy Malibu, not a Toyota Corolla, and that the black vehicle tailgating it was a Buick LeSabre.

“There was some sort of altercation that occurred prior to the shooting,” Shin told Block Club. “I only saw the Buick giving chase to the white Chevy, ramming into it several times, finally ending up at the Damen and Irving Park intersection where a passenger from the white Chevy opened fire into the Buick.”



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