An elderly man is reportedly in fair condition after being shot in the abdomen Tuesday (Sept. 6) for refusing to hand over his wallet to robbers.
According to the Chicago Tribune, 71-year-old Federico LaGuardia was watering his lawn at about 12:10 in the afternoon when two men rode past on bicycles. The robber then returned a short while later demanding LaGuardia’s wallet, when he refused, the robber wrestled him to the ground with the water hose spraying him in the face, and once LaGuardia landed on the grass he was watering, the attacker shot him. Footage from the incident shows the robber searching LaGuardia’s pockets for his wallet before riding off.
LaGuardia is then seen standing to his feet, clutching his stomach as he goes to a neighbor’s home seeking help. He was later taken to a local hospital by a good Samaritan.
The footage was captured by LaGuardia’s neighbor Willie Askew who placed the surveillance camera on his home overlooking the 7000 block of South California Avenue about 10 years ago when his car window was smashed. Askew tells the Tribune he’s had it up ever since.
A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department called the shooting “a damn shame” while speaking with reporters and couldn’t make sense of the brazen act.
“It’s just a gamble that they get a few dollars; your life isn’t worth more than a few dollars to them,” he said. “The most you looking at getting is 10, 20 dollars, something like that, and you don’t value a human life more than that?”