David Villalobos, 66, was walking his dog just before 6 a.m. last Tuesday in the 1100 block of West Cullerton Street in Chicago when he spotted two males tapping on the window of a parked car, ABC7 Chicago reported.
Villalobos told the station he soon noticed one of the males “sticking a gun to the guy’s head,” and he figured it was a carjacking in progress.
With that, Villalobos and the two males exchanged words, one of the males told him, “Hey, old man … get the f**k out of here before I shoot you.”
Villalobos had little time to react, the station said, as the gunman quickly began firing.
But so did Villalobos, who’s a concealed carrier. Police said he has a valid Firearm Owners Identification card.
“He drew his weapon, and he shot,” Villalobos told the station. “And I moved as fast as I could. I returned fire.”
A neighbor’s cellphone video captured the suspects ducking behind a car amid the shoot-out. Police told the station they got into a waiting Lexus sedan and fled the scene. They added that Chopper 7 was over the scene of an abandoned Lexus about five miles west in North Lawndale.
It isn’t clear whether either of the two males was wounded in the shoot-out. But Villalobos was hit in the leg, after which he was taken to a hospital in good condition and released later the same day.
“It was a superficial wound” that “went in and out, and I thank God for that,” he said while showing a reporter the bandage covering the spot where he was hit.
“It’s getting bad again in the neighborhood,” Villalobos noted. “It’s getting bad again.”
He also said he was reluctant to fire his gun.
“I’m thinking about going home, see my wife, my grandkids. You know, that’s what I’m thinking. I’m not thinking about shooting the guy. I was very hesitant to do so. It’s getting rough in Chicago,” Villalobos added.
He also had a message for Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson: “You ain’t got enough police.”
No other injuries were reported and the police said no one is in custody, although Area Three detectives are investigating.
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