Man Shot to Death While Sitting in Parked Car Had Been Shot Before While Sitting in Parked Car

JOLIET, IL — Howard Blankenship took bullets to his arm and leg while he was sitting in a parked car more than 16 years ago. Blankenship survived that gun attack. Friday night he was shot again while he sat in a parked car. He wasn’t so lucky this time.

Blankenship, 47, died in the Presence St. Joseph Medical Center emergency room shortly after he was shot multiple times. He had been in a car with a 32-year-old man who escaped with a graze wound to his ear.

Blankenship and the other man were parked outside the barbershop at the corner of Ruby and Center streets. When the police arrived, they found Blankenship slumped behind the steering wheel of a Buick in the intersection of Ruby and Center.

When the bullets started flying, the Buick lurched forward, crashed into a guardrail and rolled backward into the intersection, the wounded 32-year-old reportedly told police.

The other time Blankenship was shot, in November 2000, he was sitting in a car near the corner of Richards Street and Second Avenue.

A Joliet man, Victor Williams, who was 23 at the time, was charged with shooting Blankenship. A year and a half later, prosecutors dismissed the case.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist with Blankenship’s funeral expenses.

Howard Blankenship | image via GoFundMe