Police at the scene of a shooting near 1500 block of West Garfield Boulevard. (Photo: Elyssa Cherney / Chicago Tribune)
Details are sparse at the moment, but local news affiliates in Chicago are reporting a self-defense shooting involving a 58-year-old concealed carrier.
While walking in the Austin neighborhood on the city’s West Side Monday, the man was confronted by 23-year-old Shaquille Gales.
Armed with a gun, Gales demanded the man’s property. However, quickly the tables turned. It’s not clear, exactly, how the concealed carrier was able to draw his own gun and get the drop on Gales, but he did.
The 58-year-old fired, hitting Gales in “the back of the head,” the police told the Chicago Tribune.
Gales was sent to the West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. There, he was pronounced dead.
CBS Chicago is reporting that Gales died from a “gunshot wound to the chest through his arm,” according to an autopsy performed Tuesday. Gales death was ruled a homicide.
SEE ALSO: Chicago Woman Shoots Attacker with His Own Gun
Two things strike me about this story. The first is the underreporting. This seems like a big story but at the time of writing this, there is very little coverage from local media. Hopefully, that changes in the next few days. A story like this shouldn’t be relegated to a brief blurb on the web.
Second, given the anti-gun politics of city and state leadership, it’s important to remind politicians in the Land of Lincoln how wrongheaded it is to infringe on the 2A rights of Illinoisans. Every chance we get, we need to let them know.
Think about it this way. Illinois was the last state to lift its ban on concealed carry. State police have only been issuing concealed carry permits since 2014. Four years ago, that 58-year-old man would’ve been unable to defend himself in the manner he did Monday night. Who knows what would have happened to him had he been unarmed.
I’m formerly from Chi-town and it’s the pits but I still have family there. I’m living in the burbs presently. The political state is horrendous but the most cases that I’ve heard of where there’s a CCW holder defending himself, the law sided with the CCW holder.
The story line stated: CBS Chicago is reporting that Gales died from a “gunshot wound to the chest through his arm,” according to an autopsy performed Tuesday. Gales death was ruled a homicide.
So where does it come out that the would-be robber was shot in the back of the head??? Crappy reporting for sure but the would-be robber got exactly what he deserved whether it was in the back of the head or through the arm and into his chest. How in the hell can people live in the state of Illinois let alone chitcago????
I couldn’t, I moved to Florida. Most Nazi-like state in the Union, right up there with Mexifornia.
I moved out of ILL to AZ. ah-h-h-h-h-h-h ………
AZ Keith
Article says it was ruled homocide. Sounds like the good guy is getting charged with murder .
He isn’t necessarily being charged with murder.
Legally, any time someone takes the life of someone else, be it justified, by police, by gang members or soccer moms defending themselves, it is considered homicide.
That just means that it was ruled Gales didn’t die of old age.
It is the journalistic equivalent of saying, “The investigator announced that water is wet.”
I wonder if “Shaquille” had blonde hair and blue eyes?
DOES IT MATTER
Yes it does. If we have to read all about how minorities are being profiled and targeted by our police and judicial system, we need to know the ratio of white versus blacks committing crimes. That’s not racism, it’s common sense. Then we can address the real issues that minorities face, such as the social and economic problems that create the disparity in our prison population.
I doubt it. And the person who asked if it mattered, yes it does. If we have to read all about how minorities are being profiled and targeted by our police and judicial system, we need to know the ratio of white versus blacks committing crimes. That’s not racism, it’s common sense.
It’s Chicago. They don’t knick name it Ch”iraq” for nothing. Some how, some way the responsible conceal carrier will be turned into the aggressor and the dirtbag perp will be the victim. You know City Hall is in full swing and probably even has a special task force for this just sort of thing. You can count on it. Someone running away from you can still point their gun behind them and able to fire backwards at you. As long as they are still brandishing that weapon in a threating manner they are a threat to everyone around them, plain and simple. This whole mentality of being shot in the back of the head means they were no longer a threat and retreating etc… is hogwash. Until all the facts are known can’t jump to any conclusions obviously but you know the liberal media there won’t cover the story unless they can somehow put a liberal agenda spin on it. Assuming this was a cut and dry case of clear self defense which I’m sure it probably was doesn’t surprise me there isn’t major coverage on it. We can’t have the media reporting on that concealed carry laws actually do work in favor of law abiding honest hard working responsible individuals. YMMV
Sometimes when you draw the perp can spin quick enough that the round hits him 180deg from where the weapon was aimed at trigger break.so I’d say good shoot unless video comes out showing a execution.
Chicago is a shithole, run by a shithead!!!
Don’t build the place up.
I live in Chicago. The media is 100% democratic liberal agenda. None of the channels will report this. None of the channels investigate the city politicians for lack of solid policies. Rahm E. is not pressured to explain the lack of action aimed at removing gang activity. Politicians don’t explain why they aren’t using mafia laws against gangs. I’ve heard the media can’t afford to higher the type of reporters we had in the 70’s and 80’s. The caliber of journalism and investigative understanding is almost non-existant. The media take on small cases where one person has been wronged by a business and the media attention helps that person receive justice. Pathetic for a major city. Without media pressure on politicians the corrupt are more likely to flourish.
I lived in your city for my career at corporate for an entire lifetime one year…from November 1984 to November 1985. Leaving was like seeing the light you’re supposed to see when you die.
Rude people, lousy weather, expensive, congested….and your nasally accents are just as annoying as the cheeseheads and Minnesotan Fargo types.
“Nudge – nudge – wink – wink “…….can you guess I’m not a fan of where you’re from. Yes…..I’ve never been back there and I never will go back there and when I fly I make sure I don’t have to transfer there……so i expressly fly Delta.
I’m glad I live in Detroit.
This took place in a Black Ghetto neighborhood, where most of Chicago’s “gun violence” takes place. It’s likely that both the shooter and Mr. Gales were Black. The local Chicago news media usually gives little coverage to these incidents. On the other hand, when a shooting occurs in a White area it’s a lead story. Liberal anti-gun news media? Racist news media? Both.
I suspect the Chicago DA’s office is trying to figure out how to charge this guy with negligent homicide and how to spin the media into a frenzy on how this deceased predator is the victim.
One thing strikes me about this story is he shot the perp in the back of his head.
If the vermin is TRULY a threat to you, the shot to the back of the head is a terrific shot. Take it if need be.
That’s easy enough.
Most would-be muggers are probably not going to be fussing about using both hands to establish a firm “Isoceles”shooting foundation. Most likely, this creep was standing sideways with a canted (or Side Grip) one hand firing position. Then, it would have been easy for a first shot by the CC holder to enter a now narrowed body mass area through the arm and then into the chest. Next, as the perp turns his head away, a second shot fired by the CC holder might have easily entered the back of the perp’s head during an insufficient recoil recovery from the first shot.
The fatal wound was a chest wound. The head wound didn’t kill the perp.
Sounds to me that Shaquille, as is apparently fairly common, did not have a real gun, or that the gun he had didn’t have any bullets. A lot of these muggings/minimarket robberies are committed with “rent-a-guns” that cost extra if you want bullets, with a surcharge if you use any of them. Either that or airsoft replicas. If there is an armed response, these guys will try to flee.
In this case, I am guessing that the victim drew and fired immediately, and that Shaquille, seeing the gun, turned to flee and caught the first round in his arm, and since he was by then sideways, the bullet penetrated his chest. This is a good shoot.
If–and this is a big if considering the different stories–there was a second shot fired that caught our misbeggotten robber caught it in the back of his head, it could be either good or bad, depending on the facts. If two shots were fired in quick succession, then the odds are that it is still a good shoot, Shaquille simply continuing to rotate and thus having his back facing the victim when the second shot was fired. However, I have read a story of a young man who fired a burst out of a legal automatic weapon, and the prosecutor pressed murder charges since the second shot was through the side and the third in the back. So that is a “wait and see.”
But if a witness comes along that says the shooter executed the bad boy as he lay on the ground, then that would be bad for the concealed carrier. That would be murder.
Too many unknowns to judge this shooting at this point.
NO, the coroner stated he was shot in the arm and chest with a single shot. The police are stupid to charge this guy with homicide, which is why they filed it as a homicide; when in reality it should be filed as a justifiable homicide since he was protecting himself and his property. It would seem the police are aiming at closing the books on concealed carry even though it just proved that concealed carry works in a positive way. I moved out of Chicago in the 1970’s as it was illegal to own a firearm.The police were just as stupid then as they are now. It’s really a screwed up city with a lot of problems that aren’t getting corrected and that’s exactly why I moved away.
And I would agree, if the fellow shot the guy in the head while he was laying on the ground and not moving he could be tried for murder.
Homicide is not only murder. Any killing of a person by another person is a homicide. Every time a person is killed by a gunshot fired by another person, it is homicide.
What does it mean that the death has been ruled a homicide? Bad reporting or is the CCW permit holder already getting shafted?
It means that it was not an accident, but instead a killing of one human by another. Whether or not it was a justifiable homicide is a different question.
Any shooting death not an accident is considered to be a homicide. At some point it will be determined if the shooting was justifiable. I hope the shooter has a good lawyer, and a lot of money in the bank. In Chicago I’m sure the prosecutors will instantly try to make an example of this man by indicting him and trying to try him for a crime up to and including murder. It’s just the way liberal/anti-gun administrations operate.
Even an “accidental shooting’ is a homicide.
George it means it wasn’t an accidental death and it wasn’t a suicide. Just another homicide in Chitcago. They just have to determine if it was justifiable.