(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Being a U.S. senator is no protection against coming close to gun violence.
Sen. Dick Durbin on Friday said he and his wife witnessed a shooting on DuSable Lake Shore Drive in recent days. Someone shot bullets into the air, out of a moving vehicle, he told reporters.
“I heard a popping sound. I didn’t know what it was, but the driver of the car said, ‘Those are gunshots.’ It turned out to be the car next to us.”
The Springfield Democrat was on the South Side of Chicago Friday to announce new funding aimed at addressing the root causes of gun violence.
He joined community leaders at the Institute for Nonviolence to announced more than $2.3 million in federal funding to the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.
“We need to better understand the reasons why people make the decision to go get a gun and cause violence,” he said. “We then need to find the programs that address these things and that work.”
The incident Durbin recounted comes as Chicago has seen a surge in shootings along the city’s expressways. The Illinois State Police was slated to begin intensive patrols Friday.
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