Shots fired during Critical Mass group bike ride in Uptown
Shots were fired during a monthly citywide bicycle group ride Friday evening in the Uptown neighborhood on the North Side.
Around 8 p.m. Friday, a man and woman, 42 and 41, were in the 1200 block of West Sunnyside Avenue when they got into a fight with two unknown males, Chicago police said.
The woman was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital for unknown injuries, and her condition was stabilized, police said.
No one was in custody, and area detectives were investigating.
The incident occurred during the Critical Mass group bike ride, a monthly event where cyclists meet at Daley Plaza in the Loop on the last Friday of every month and ride throughout the city.
In a video shared with Block Club Chicago, two people — one of them a cyclist — struggled over a bike when the cyclist was dragged to the ground.
Loren Phillips, a cyclist, told Block Club he was punched in the face by the driver and knocked unconscious when he attempted to help his friend.
“The last thing that I remember was the driver coming up to me, and then I kind of, like, came to I don’t know how much later — I don’t know how long I was out,” Phillips said. “My jaw was hurting, and my back was hurting. I was just really dazed.”
After further brawling and pleas from onlookers to calm down, an occupant from a vehicle near where the altercation happened fired two shots, according to the video. No one was struck by gunfire, officials said.
Christina Whitehouse, founder of advocacy group Bike Lane Uprising, said the incident "touches on a much larger issue just as a whole."
"I'm not surprised, this stuff happens all the time," Whitehouse said when asked of her reaction to the video. "The reality is, driver road rage is through the roof right now. ... It's driver against driver, driver against pedestrian and it's driver against bicyclist."
Whitehouse described Critical Mass as an "international phenomenon" throughout biking communities.
"It's not an aggressive thing," Whitehouse said. "There's children that are on it, people bring their newborns on it. It's a very joyful experience."
During the monthly events, some cyclists "cork" — or stand to ensure drivers don’t strike passing cyclists as the group passes through.
"You just kind of stand there [and] say 'hold on a minute,'" Whitehouse said. "It allows the group ride to remain as small as possible. ... It allows everybody to get through safely and it allows for a driver to not inadvertently get stuck in the middle of a route."