Chicago Shooting Victim Reflects On 'Crazy Thing' That Happened

CHICAGO — If you're looking for a reason not to fear the spike of shootings in "safe" parts of town, consider the state of our city from T.J. Kory's perspective.

The 25-year-old data scientist grew up in Naperville. He went to college in Alabama and moved here for a good job crunching financial data.

An apartment in Wrigleyville was Kory's port of entry into city living in 2019. He stayed there long enough to enjoy being able to walk from his front stoop to catch a Cubs game. This year, he moved to Wicker Park, where he lives with three roommates.

Kory likes to spend time watching live music or catching the big game at a sports bar. He hardly ever worried about the shootings and murders that his reporter girlfriend writes news stories about.

Some weekdays, he rents a Divvy bike to commute to work at the Old Post Office and — when wind strong enough for sailing kicks up on the lake — to visit to Monroe Harbor, where he joins a crew of sailors competing in "beer can" races on the lake.

That's where Kory was heading Wednesday afternoon, pedaling the fastest route toward the harbor, southeast on Milwaukee Avenue from his first-floor apartment, when he became an unsuspecting victim of street violence.

Under the railroad viaduct just north of Kinzie Street, Kory's left leg suddenly went numb. A bullet struck him in the left buttocks.

"I thought something hit my foot," he said. "I didn't realize I was shot until I patted down my leg and my hand came back covered in blood. Then, I heard gunshots behind me."

People inside two SUVs were shooting at each other while speeding toward the West Loop on a stretch of Milwaukee Avenue pocked with protected bike lanes. Those lanes are a favored cycling route by young professionals drawn from hip Northwest Side neighborhoods to the vibrant nightlife, craft breweries and trendy restaurants that stretch from Albany Park, through Logan Square and Wicker Park to East Ukrainian Village and the West Loop.

The cars involved in the Wednesday shootout zoomed past Kory as he eased himself onto the wide sidewalk under the viaduct. "I tried to stay low because I could still hear the gunfire," he said.

He called 911, and sent a text to his mother: "Don't freak out. I got shot. But I'm alright."

A 911 dispatcher told him to keep pressure on the wound. A stranger named Zach who found him on the sidewalk pressed Kory's T-shirt against the wound until paramedics arrived.

Cell phone video captured the Good Samaritan's effort.

At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, doctors told Kory the bullet ripped through muscle and lodged in his upper thigh in a spot that was too deep to safely remove. "Apparently, I got hit in the best place to get shot," he said. "It did not hit anything important, thankfully."

Police detectives visited Kory's hospital room to ask him what had happened. "I really didn't see what the cars looked like," he said. "I didn't have anything useful to the police."

Later Wednesday night, his mother took him home from the hospital. Over the following several days, Kory struggled to walk farther than a half block. A bruise appeared on his thigh, marking what he thinks is the bullet's resting place. But he feels better. A little stronger every day.

"I'm still limping around. It's definitely hard to move," he said. "I might have to do some physical therapy. I've got a follow-up appointment, and I'll discuss that with the doctors."

His roommates have been supportive, and good about helping him get around their apartment.

"Generally, they're treating this as a crazy thing that has happened," Kory said. "Some of them aren't going to tell their parents, who are already concerned about them living in Chicago."

On Monday, before his workday got busy with remote meetings, I asked Kory if getting shot in Chicago changed his perspective on living in the city.

"I've been struggling with how to think about all that happened. It almost doesn't really seem like I actually got shot. It feels like I was in a random accident. Maybe it will be different in six months. I know that gun violence and carjackings are becoming more common closer to where I live, but the neighborhood doesn't feel unsafe to me. I bike that route once a week," he said.

"People ask if I'm going to move out of the city. I really don't think so. I don't feel unsafe in my everyday life, even though maybe my experience says the opposite. When you live in the city, you have some more inherent dangers than living in the suburbs, maybe. But the trade-offs are worth it."

Maybe the bullet in his thigh is a reminder: You can't protect yourself from fate.

So far this year, 632 people have been shot and killed in Chicago.

Another 3,002 people have been shot and wounded.

Yet young professionals like Kory still flock to the city's hippest neighborhoods, where you can stand in line for exclusive sneaker releases, catch your favorite touring indie band, nosh on a gourmet burger and wash it down with craft beer brewed on your block.

They might even be the driving force of Chicago's meager population growth.

Kory said he didn't want to sound cliché, but he feels just "lucky to be here."

Alive. And in Chicago.

"I've got to take advantage of that," he said, "and live life while I can."

Maybe we all can relate to that.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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