Dick Durbin experiences Chicago gun violence first-hand; Lightfoot urged to declare ‘public safety emergency

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Friday that he recently became the latest Democrat to have a too-close-for-comfort experience with urban crime.

"Last Saturday night," Durbin told reporters, "my wife and I went out to eat, downtown Chicago, with another couple – several couples – and we were driving home on Lake Shore Drive about 10 o’clock on Saturday night. "He could have just as easily been shooting the gun at us."

Suddenly, "I heard a popping sound," Durbin recalled, according to Chicago’s WBBM-TV. "I didn’t know what it was. The driver of the car said, ‘Those are gunshots.’ It turned out to be the car next to us.