Holy smokes! This isn't in the suburbs, it's a little over a mile west of Wrigley Field.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-chicago-cougar-shot-webapr15,0,98147.story
By Jeremy Manier, Tina Shah and Jeremy Gorner | Tribune reporters
8:35 PM CDT, April 14, 2008
A 150-pound cougar was shot and killed Monday evening in the Roscoe Village neighborhood on Chicago's North Side, officials said.
The incident occurred around 6 p.m. near North Hamilton Avenue and West Roscoe Street, according to Chicago police.
Police cornered the cougar in the back yard of Ben Greene, 39, who lives on the 3400 block of North Hoyne. Greene said he heard a volley of gunfire shortly before 6 p.m. as he was bathing his 10-month-old son. His wife, Kate, ran upstairs screaming with their 3-year-old son, and they all took cover in a back room.
"At first I'm thinking there's a gun battle in the street," said Greene, who owns a trucking company.
As the shots stopped Greene heard the police yelling, "We got him! We got him!" Greene ventured downstairs and moved on his knees to the front door, where he saw police on his lawn. The officers had shot holes in an air conditioning unit on the side of Greene's house while aiming for the cougar, which died near Greene's garage.
Belmont District Capt. Mike Ryan said the cougar tried to attack the officers when they tried to contain it.
"It was turning on the officers," Ryan said, adding that no officers were hurt. "There was no way to take it into custody." Greene said he agreed with the police decision to kill the cougar.
"As far as I witnessed they did a pretty good job," Greene said. "Hypothetically, if there were kids in the yard and the cougar jumps in, what would the cougar have done?"
"It was obviously a pretty traumatic experience for the kids," Greene said. "At first it was a little nutty."
Mark Rosenthal, operations manager for the Chicago Commission on Animal Care and Control, said his office had been following up on various reports of cougar sightings all day. Residents in the area said Animal Care and Control workers had been combing the neighborhood since 9 a.m.
Rosenthal said he did not know if the cougar shot was the same animal spotted recently in the northern suburbs.
He said the animal was not wearing a collar or an ID tag.
Frank Hirschmann, 50, in the 3500 block of North Seeley Avenue, saw the animal pass by his home.
"I was sitting on the porch, and all of a sudden he crossed the street, and hurdled a six-foot fence like nothing," Hirschmann said. He said he then ran into his house and watched police chase the cougar on foot.
Hirschmann described it as tan, 4 feet tall and 6 feet long. "It was amazing and scary," he said.
Greene's neighbor, Romeo Dorazio, had just gotten home from dinner when he heard about 10 gunshots.
"I knew it was really nearby. I walked to the window and saw a cougar," said Dorazio. "It was the freakiest thing I ever saw."