A 23-year-old man is charged with attempted first-degree murder after police say he opened fire on a 45-year-old man from inside a green vehicle on Chicago’s West Side in November, leaving the victim in serious condition. Juan Rodriguez was detained on Tuesday and will face a detention hearing on Thursday while the matter progresses through court.
Rodriguez was charged with attempted first-degree murder and three charges of aggravated violence for discharging a firearm, causing grievous bodily damage, and using a deadly weapon, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. According to the report, the incident occurred on November 28, 2025, while the victim was standing on the sidewalk in the 700 block of North Leamington Avenue in the Austin district.
According to the Sun-Times, Rodriguez allegedly shot the man from within a green truck. According to the site, the wounded man was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. According to the article, Rodriguez is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for a detention hearing.
The shooting occurred in an area of the city where gun crime has traditionally gathered. According to the Chicago Public Safety DataHub, homicide patterns from 2016 to 2025 reveal that violence is concentrated in central Austin and along its eastern boundary with Garfield Park. According to DataHub, Austin’s western boundary with suburban Oak Park and northern boundary with Belmont Cragin have historically been quieter.
According to the DataHub, vacant buildings owned by the city and county in Austin are concentrated in the southeastern region of the neighborhood, which is also where the most homicides occur. According to the DataHub, Austin is the third-largest community area in Chicago in terms of both population and land size.
The Leamington Avenue shooting occurred at a year in which Chicago’s general violence rate was decreasing. According to Block Club Chicago, the city registered 416 homicides in 2025, the lowest annual total since 1965 and a 29% decline from the previous year. According to the outlet, shootings decreased by almost 35% from 2024 and approximately 60% from 2021.
Block Club Chicago also discovered that seven community areas, including Austin, North Lawndale, West Englewood, and West Pullman, would contribute for 35% of the citywide drop in gun crime by 2025. According to the outlet, robberies declined to over 6,100 citywide, nearly 50% lower than the high in 2023, and carjackings fell by half between 2024 and 2025. However, fatal domestic shootings increased by 50 percent in the same year, according to Block Club Chicago.
Gun violence has occurred on the 700 block of North Leamington Avenue since the November case. In a separate incident, two males were shot, one fatally, on a Friday evening on Chicago’s West Side after officers responded to a gunshot detection technology alert in the same block at 4:55 p.m., ABC7 Chicago said.
In that case, a 49-year-old man received a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at Mt. Sinai Hospital after being classified in serious condition, ABC7 reported. A 21-year-old guy who was injured in the leg was also sent to Mt. Sinai and reported to be in fair health. According to the station’s report, no one was in jail while police proceeded to investigate the shooting.
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