By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Manuel Arizaga was shot and killed while walking to work Friday morning, less than a block from the home he shared with his wife and baby girl in the Irving Park neighborhood, according to his family.
The family of Manuel Arizaga, who was shot to death while walking to work in the Irving Park neighborhood Friday morning, looks on as police investigate the crime scene. | Sam Charles/Sun-Times
About 4:40 a.m., the 34-year-old was found shot once in the head in the 3600 block of North St. Louis, according to police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines.
His uncovered body was at the mouth of the eastern alley of Drake, just south of Waveland.
Officers at the scene said the shooting may have been a robbery gone wrong and Arizaga didn’t show any signs of being a gang member.
His brother, 38-year-old Julio Arizaga, said he was driving to pick Manuel up at the intersection of Waveland and Kimball to go to work at a nearby furniture delivery company when he learned his brother was shot.
Manuel Arizaga
Manuel Arizaga had just left his home near Waveland and Drake—which he shared with his wife and 1-year-old daughter—to walk to Waveland and Kimball when he was shot, his brother said.
About a dozen more members of the family arrived at the crime scene as several news helicopters hovered overhead.
Maria Lopez, who has lived four doors north of the shooting for 20 years, said she told her daughter—who has two young sons and also lives nearby—not to exit through the alley to avoid seeing Arizaga’s body.
Lopez said recent shootings in the area have made her want to sell her home and move, adding she fears for her grandsons’ safety.
“You can’t raise two little boys here,” Lopez said.