albany park

Grieving Family Wants Answers After Son Who Was Fishing is Seriously Wounded in Albany Park Shooting

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A 23-year-old man is fighting for his life after being shot near the Chicago River in the city's Albany Park neighborhood.

The family of Luis Franchi III told NBC 5 that the 23-year-old could lose his eyesight. Franchi is hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.

“He is a jokester. He likes to laugh, he likes to play baseball, he loves fishing," Melissa Torres, Franchi's mother, said in tears.

Her heart is broken into pieces after she said her son was fishing with his brothers before being shot multiple times in the face by two men.

“I wish and I pray that whoever did this to my son that their mother would never have to go through what I am going through,” she sobbed.

She said the shooting happened at the intersection of North Albany Ave. and West Carmen Avenue late Wednesday night.

Police said the brothers were packing up from fishing when they were confronted by the suspects while inside their SUV. Franchi's family said the brothers did not know the suspects.

“They were yelling from inside the dark park that has no lights on if they were in a gang and they (her sons) kept saying no. They had their fishing stuff, they were like ‘we are here for fishing’,” Torres said.

That is when she said the suspects opened fire, striking Franchi in the face.

“My son got hit multiple times,” she said.

She told NBC 5 that her sons were able to call for help, and Luis was taken to Saint Francis Hospital shortly thereafter.

“We will hear more after the surgery, but they have to let the swelling go down. There are particles that they have to remove from the skull,” Victor Torres, Luis’s stepfather said.

Police said no one is in custody at this time.

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