Man charged with attempted murder in Austin neighborhood shooting

A man has been charged with attempted murder in connection to a shooting last month in Austin on the West Side.

Clifford Jones, 27, was arrested Thursday in the 5600 block of West West End Avenue after investigators identified him as the shooter in the April 29 attack, Chicago police said.

He allegedly opened fire on the 31-year-old victim shortly before 7 p.m. as the man got out of a vehicle in the 200 block of South Lotus Avenue, police said.

The man was shot in his neck and taken to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, police said.

Jones also faces a count of aggravated battery with a firearm. He was expected to appear for a bail hearing later Friday.

According to Sun-Times records, the last shooting in the 200 block of South Lotus was on April 21, 2018, when two women were shot, one of them fatally, during a robbery.

Chicago police’s 15th District, which covers much of Austin, has reported 43 shootings this year through May 21, according to police statistics. That’s a 9% decrease in shootings compared with the same time last year, when the district had 47 shootings.

The district, however, has seen an increase in murders. Thirteen people have been murdered in the district so far this year, a 63% increase compared with the eight murders during the same period in 2020.

Read more on crime, and track the city’s homicides.