UPDATED MARCH 22, 2017 8:59 A.M. — A brazen midmorning shooting outside the bustling Cook County criminal courthouse on Monday left a 21-year-old man critically wounded and at least one regular to the sprawling Southwest Side complex rethinking his safety.



"These guys don't have any boundaries," said defense attorney Stuart Goldberg, who pulled into a parking lot next to the crime scene minutes after the shooting.



Police said the 21-year-old victim was walking on his way to the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th Street and California Avenue when he was hit by shots fired from someone in a white van at about 9:25 a.m. Two off-duty Chicago police officers pursued a man and made an arrest, authorities said. Police said a gun was recovered.



The victim was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition with six gunshot wounds to the groin area, officials said. The man has a history of misdemeanor arrests and is currently on probation after pleading guilty last year to aggravated fleeing, but he did not have a court date Monday, said his attorney, Jayne Ingles.



"I don't know why he was there," she said.



Crime scene tape marked off an area of California Avenue in front of a Popeye's chicken restaurant across 26th Street from the courthouse. Witnesses said police and an ambulance quickly converged on the area after the shooting.



The spray of gunfire startled attorneys arriving for morning hearings. Goldberg said he was running a little late when pulled into a small privately owned lot next to the Popeye's and found police swarming the area. Investigators found a shell casing near the spot where Goldberg would have parked his black Rolls-Royce Phantom.



Goldberg said the shooting has made him "reassess" his safety when visiting the courthouse.



A food truck vendor who has worked outside the courthouse for some 30 years said Monday that he was making tacos for a customer and thought he heard a bus backfire on California Avenue.



"Then somebody said, 'Oh somebody's shooting,'" said the vendor, who declined to give his name.



It's the second shooting this month involving a victim coming or going from the massive courthouse and jail complex. On March 6, Kamari Belmont, 23, was killed several blocks south of the Cook County Jail after being released because prosecutors failed to give him a timely trial on a murder charge.



Police are investigating whether Belmont was targeted by a rival gang after two friends picked him up from the jail and drove south on California Avenue.



The Leighton courthouse was briefly locked down last summer after a shooting nearby, longtime attorneys who work in building said.