During the past month, gang bangers firing guns from the window of their Jeep, drove through a park in Edgewater and ran over two dogs, killing a woman's little service dog. Then a few blocks North in Rogers Park, a girl walking her dog was sexually molested.
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| Scruffi, killed by gangbangers in park |
In the dog walking area known as "The Meadows" near the 5300 block of Sheridan Rd., a man and woman were giving their dogs a late afternoon off leash romp. Then a Jeep occupied by a group of dark skinned males, began tearing over the grass at high speed with guns firing from the windows.
According to the two traumatized dog owners, the Jeep intentionally aimed for the dogs. One dog scrunched down into a little ball as it was run over and miraculously emerged unscathed. Another, a 5 year old terrier mix named Scruffi, was run over by the wheels and killed.
Scruffi was a rescue dog adopted by cancer survivor Cathy Castro. Because of Scruffi's extraordinary intuitive abilities, he was trained as a service dog to guide her when her face became paralyzed, signalling the onset of a seizure.
Castro expressed her emotional devastation at Scruffi's loss, in a February 3rd interview with the Inside Booster neighborhood newspaper.
The other dog walker found his traumatized dog (the one who was run over but escaped injury) cowering in fear behind a parked snow plow's blade.
The male dog walker is a native of upstate New York, and said he is moving back there as soon as his lease expires. "This is just the last nail in the coffin. I can't even take my dogs from the house to the park in Chicago anymore," he said.
Meanwhile, up at Pottawatomie Park at 7400 N. Wolcott, a 22 year old woman, wearing a University of Michigan sweatshirt, was exercising her dog in the designated dog area when she was approached by a 6'4" black man wearing a black skull cap and camo jacket.
The man, known locally as "Trey" commented that it was interesting that she'd gone to school at the UM as he had a "baby momma" in Michigan (how's that for a smooth pickup line?) Not one to fancy extensive pre bedroom chit chat, the amorous "Trey" then pushed the girl against a fence and began groping her breasts and other body parts.
Her screams for help brought onlookers, which scared off the suave suitor, who fled west thru the park.
Chicago Police have made no arrests in conjunction with either dog walking incident.
