Shooting victim’s mom: ‘I keep waiting for the doorbell to ring and for him to come through that door’
By Brian Stanley bstanley@stmedianetwork.com January 23, 2013 7:54AM
Carrisa Perry walks at the scene where her brother Christopher was shot and killed in the 200 block of Hunter Ave. Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, in Joliet. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 25, 2013 12:32PM
JOLIET — A young man’s efforts to leave the gang lifestyle, start a career and raise his daughter were cut short by a hail of bullets Tuesday night.
At 6:17 p.m. Joshua Hoehn, 23, had come over to visit his friend, Christopher Perry, 24, at Perry’s house in the 200 block of Hunter Avenue, according to reports. When the two men went outside to make a run to a nearby gas station, a red sport utility vehicle with two men pulled up from the street.
Police Chief Mike Trafton said words were exchanged and the passenger in the SUV opened fire before the vehicle sped away. Perry was struck in his back while Hoehn was hit in his shoulder and leg.
Perry’s mother, Danna Perry said a bullet also struck Hoehn’s car, where two young children were seated in the back.
Christopher Perry was pronounced dead at 7:18 p.m. in the emergency room of Presence Saint Joseph Medical Center. Hoehn is expected to survive.
“The victims have gang connections and we do not believe this was a random attack,” Trafton said Wednesday.
The shooting was not the first in Joliet this week. A 19-year-old man survived being shot in the heel, leg and abdomen in a Monday night drive-by shooting at McDonough and Des Plaines streets. Trafton said he was unaware of any connection between the two incidents.
Carissa Perry said that before the Tuesday night attack her brother had been home with his 1-month-old daughter, Kataleya. One report said Hoehn had been involved in an argument with other men earlier that day.
Perry was the second of four children, and his house was where “the kids” would hang out and play basketball, his family said.
“He liked drawing, especially tattoos, and would write and make cards to all of us,” Danna Perry said. “Some of them were funny. Some were ignorant. It depends who they were for.”
After attending Dirksen Junior High School and Joliet Central High School, Perry had been employed at local warehouses.
Danna Perry acknowledged her son once was a gang member but recently had “started growing up.”
“Watching him become a father, he acted like he had some sense,” she said. “He’d just wanted to spend time with his girlfriend and their daughter. They were supposed to move into their own place next week.”
Perry also planned to take classes to become a sterile processing technician like his mother.
Funeral arrangements were pending Wednesday, but Danna Perry planned to donate her son’s organs to Gift of Hope. A steady stream of friends and neighbors brought food, flowers and condolences as the family gathered in the front room Christopher Perry had walked out of the night before with plans to return.
“I keep waiting for the doorbell to ring and for him to come through that door,” Danna Perry said.
“You think just because you shoot one person you take them away. But you kill their family too. You shatter their hearts. And then you go to jail, which kills your family,” she said. “You break a lot of hearts.”
