• Updated story: Police release description of bridge shooting suspect
• Updated story: Investigation “ongoing” in State Street Bridge shooting
• More photos

(Above) Seen from Marina City, police officers stand in the area on the State Street Bridge where a man was shot Monday afternoon. (Click on image to view larger version.)

August 8, 2011 – As a heavy rain fell in downtown Chicago late Monday afternoon, a 29-year-old man was shot in the middle of the State Street Bridge. He survived, the suspect is still at large, and the west side of the bridge was shut down for about two hours.

It happened at about 5:00 p.m. Police say the man was walking to work, going north across the bridge, when he was approached by another man who pulled out a gun and shot the 29-year-old once in the head. A motive is not known and police are not yet releasing a description of the suspect, but witnesses have described him as tall, thin, African-American, wearing a light-colored shirt and black shorts.

Police say the unidentified victim, who was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, is “talking to the detectives.”

Not only were there several witnesses, but police are collecting “video evidence,” presumably from the city’s surveillance cameras near the State Street Bridge.

While police have not yet determined if the suspect and the victim knew each other, they do not believe it was a random attack.

“We think this was an instance where the person was specifically targeted,” said Gary Yanashiroya, commander of the detective division for Area 3, which includes police beats north of the Chicago River. “The victim was shot in extremely close proximity by the offender, which is one of the reasons why we don’t think it was random.”

(Above) Commander Yanashiroya speaks with reporters in front of Marina City.

After he shot the victim, the suspect fled south on State Street and turned left down Wacker Drive.

Witnesses, including two women dining at Smith & Wollensky, agreed there was one gunshot.

15-year-old Sammeiso Lewis saw the whole thing. The 15-year-old Trump Tower resident was walking with a group, going south on State Street. As he passed Marina City, he heard the gunshot and saw the gun.

“All we heard was like a gunshot, like ‘boom.’ We saw this one man fall on the ground. And some lady and her husband came and helped the man. The other man, it was looking like they were together, I thought. And he just started running toward [Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist].”

“When he got shot, he just fell down.”

“It’s just crazy,” said Lewis. “Just too much stuff going on in Chicago. Everything’s just getting crazy.”

(Below) State Street was closed to traffic for about two hours Monday afternoon from Wacker Drive to the entrance into Marina City.