Community on edge as masked gunman shoots second resident dead in 2 days

Authorities are investigating after a masked gunman fatally shot two men in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood in a 36-hour period.

The Chicago Tribune reported Eliyahu Moscowitz, 24, was shot to death Monday evening on the 1100 block of West Lunt. His death came a day after Douglass Watts, 73, was reportedly shot and killed while walking his dogs on the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue—about a mile-and-a-half away from where Moscowitz was murdered.

Both men were shot at close range using the same gun that used the same bullets, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The determination has led police to believe that one person carried out both slayings.

“This person is clearly trying to disguise themselves,” Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during Tuesday’s press conference. “Clearly he or she knows what they are going out to do.”

WLS-TV reported that both victims appear to have been chosen at random and neither man was robbed. Johnson declined to confirm whether the shootings were hate crimes; reports indicated Moscowitz was an Orthodox Jew.

“It’s just too early to be able to say that definitively, though we are looking at every possibility,” he said, according to the Sun-Times.

The FBI and ATF are assisting local police in their ongoing investigation. A motive is not yet known.

[Featured Image: Chicago Police Department]