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Park City woman shot in leg during robbery while visiting family in Chicago

Posted at 5:28 PM, Nov 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-30 19:28:09-05

PARK CITY, Utah -- A Park City woman was robbed and shot Monday night while visiting family in Chicago.

Silvia Berger, 69, had just arrived at her daughter’s home and went back to get more belongings from the car when a gunman approached her and grabbed her purse with all of her cash.

“He looked right at me,” Berger said. “It was pretty amazing because there was a pause for a second. We were struggling with the bag and there was a pause, and he thought about it, and then he shot.”

Berger screamed after she was shot in the left leg. Neighbors rushed over and tied a tourniquet on her leg before paramedics arrived.

The gunman took off and got into a minivan with another man and woman. Neighbors have provided surveillance videos of the suspect, but Chicago Police say they do not have any suspects in custody and the case is still under investigation.

Berger was visiting her daughter, son-in-law and two-year-old grandson. She also came to recover after her partner died about six weeks ago and she no longer had a home.

Berger’s daughter is angry this gunman has made it more difficult for her mother to heal.

“If you are going to rob someone, take their purse, once you have their purse, flee: Don’t shoot them,” Bianca Berger said.

But the Park City grandmother is trying to be optimistic.

“I’m lucky,” Berger said. “The bullet didn’t hit any major organs or arteries. For a bad thing happening, it went as well as it could.”

Berger plans to stay at her daughter’s home for the next month, but she says she is now wary about going outside and will always shut the garage door before getting out of the car.

“It can happen in any city,” she said.

Bianca Berger and her neighbors are also using the shooting to pressure the police department to put a bigger law enforcement presence in their Chicago neighborhood.