Lester McCarty sat on the porch of his home of 40 years with his wife of 48 years and surveyed the crime scene across the street at Eckersall Park.



Officers walked in and out of the park's stadium south of 82nd, where a retired deputy police chief had exchanged gunfire with a robber during an exercise session for senior citizens about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.



The retired officer, Fred Coffey, 72, was hit in the arm. The robber, 21, suffered a more serious wound in the lower body, according to police. Both were stabilized at hospitals, but police were releasing few other details.



McCarty said a person who appeared shot hobbled out to a waiting car and jumped in. He was later arrested and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. The retired officer went to the University of Chicago Medical Center.



"They picked the wrong one," McCarty said.



Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson visited Coffey at the hospital and later released a statement saying "gun offenders in Chicago do not discriminate. Their reckless conduct and lack of respect for humanity puts families, public servants and anything that stands in their way at risk.



"Enough is enough," added Johnson, who has campaigned for stricter sentencing laws for repeat gun offenders. "Retired Deputy Chief Coffey was a great police officer and public servant to the people of Chicago and I am glad he is okay."



McCarty said he watches the group walking in and out each morning for their exercises. His corner home has a small white-picket fence and hostas with purple flowers. Aside from the roof just recently fixed, McCarty made every repair in his home with his own hands.



He sits out here each day with coffee,and each night because it's pleasant past park closing time. The playground is clean.



The family had three children: a 32-year-old man who died almost one year ago due to complications from diabetes diagnosed at the age of 18 months, and two daughters who are both nurses.



"My youngest, she's been trying to move us from over here," he said. "I'm going to have to make sure she doesn't handcuff me and drag me out of here."



He's not sure where, but she has a house lined up in a suburb. It has four bedrooms, and he'd be able to take his walks, he said. The neighborhood's been getting younger since the CHA tore down projects, and buildings in the area have been rented to tenants with housing vouchers, he said.



He and his wife bought their home from a bus driver for the CTA, where McCarty also worked for 30 years before retiring at the age of 53.



He started at the CTA after a two-year stint in the Army. He was drafted in 1964 and returned home stronger after carrying around an M60 machine gun in Vietnam for 13 months. He had trained as an aircraft mechanic but was moved to infantry when he landed in country.



The South Chicago neighborhood was one of the first where Chicago's first generation of black middle-class homeowners -- many of them civil servants working for the CTA, Chicago Public Schools, the police and fire departments and other city jobs -- put down roots.



At 71, McCarty said he's the newest homeowner on the block. Everyone else up and down the east side of the 8100 and 8200 blocks moved in before him. As the couple talked, neighbors wandered by. They traded what they heard: A few shots. An officer had maybe shot the person who shot him.



An older man who looked young, in a black-and-white hat and tucked-in white button up, wondered aloud: "Nine out of 10 people ain't gonna walk around with money."



"Who's using common sense nowadays?" responded Kenneth Warmack, 81 and a longtime neighborhood resident.



Everyone laughed.



After police started clearing out, a family friend left the front porch. He mentioned he had been working out after someone gave him a treadmill.



"You're married," one asked.



The young man smiled. "I'm trying to save up for the ring."



Warmack yelled as he walked away: "Weren't we just talking about common sense?"