A Chicago fisherman was shot by a gang of masked men as he walked back to his car Wednesday night, police told WLS Thursday.
23-year-old Luis Franchi III, who hails from the Albany Park area of Chicago, was attacked after a fishing session along the North Branch of the Chicago River, according to WLS.
Ana Franchi, Franchi’s sister, told CBS 2 her brothers reported being approached by “two guys masked up saying, ‘Where you guys from?'”
Melissa Torres, Franchi’s mother, told WLS her son responded to the men, saying “‘We are here fishing. We don’t gangbang. We’re not with none of that,’ and they just both of them pulled out guns and they just started shooting up the whole car my boys were in.”
Torres added her sons managed leave their car and escape on foot to a nearby McDonald’s before an ambulance transported Franchi, who received several gunshot wounds to his face with the additional prospect of blindness in his left eye, to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, WLS reported.
Fisherman shot while walking to his car in Albany Park https://t.co/KSwYe0hPsJ pic.twitter.com/zsmuLvQ2LR
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) April 7, 2023
Franchi’s mother added she was “hurt, angry, aggravated. Like why? Why do this to people that are innocent.” Police confirmed Franchi has no criminal record, according to WLS. (RELATED: Obama Presidential Library Reportedly Displacing Poor Chicago Residents)
Torres told WLS her son is a plumber’s apprentice with passions for baseball and fishing before adding “they just took that all away from him. Working and everything. We don’t know if he’s ever going to be able to work ever again.”
Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s incoming Democratic mayor, recently defended his previous stance for defunding the police as crime in the city continues to surge.