Student dies after being hit by stay bullet

By Megan Hickey

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — “It’s just so senseless.”

Friends and loved ones speak out on the campus of University of Chicago on Monday.

Max Solomon, a rising junior, is one of the latest victims of gun violence in the city.

CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reports he was shot by a stray bullet while riding the Green Line Thursday, and yesterday he was taken off life support.

The 20-year-old University Of Chicago student shot on a Green Line train at the 51st Street stop has died, the university confirmed Monday.

“The University of Chicago community is devastated by the loss of Max Solomon Lewis, an undergraduate student who has passed away from injuries related to being shot while sitting in an off-campus Chicago Transit Authority elevated train on Thursday, July 1. Our deepest sympathies are with Max’s family, friends, and all who knew him. He was a talented student and beloved individual who will be greatly missed.”

Lewis was just 20 years old.

He’d just accepted an investment banking offer he’d been working so hard for and was riding home from his summer internship downtown when his life was cut short.

His friends said he is another senseless victim of the gun violence here in Chicago.

The shooting happened July 1 around 6 p.m. when Lewis was struck by a bullet in the back of the neck and taken to the hospital in critical condition.

According to a Facebook post from his aunt, Lewis was coming back from his summer internship at the time of the shooting.

“I was told Max was shot. And he was shot in the neck and it’s and it was really bad,” said friend Zachary Cogan

Max Lewis’s friends joined his family at the hospital as soon as they got the word.

The Denver-native was sitting on the Green Line as the train was stopped at the 51st Street station Thursday evening.

Police said he’d been shot in the back of the neck by a stray bullet.

“Knowing someone so close to your heart go through that, and have it be another headline was just heartbreaking,” said friend Joyce Lui, who’s also Promontory Investment Research member.

“To have his life taken away from him by someone completely random on his way back to his apartment is just terrifying,” said friend and Promontory Investment Research member. “And hurts to much that someone we know and so close to this this could happen.”

Joyce Liu and Victoria Gin worked closely with him as members of the school’s Promontory Investment Research group.

“They told us it was actually in the c2 section of his spine so they wouldn’t be able to remove the bullet.”

Zachary Cogan was an AEPi fraternity brother.

“I mean this is the longest I’ve gone without talking to him, and since I met Max two years ago,” Cogan said. “So this is really, really life changing.

It’s clear from their stories that he changed many of their lives in his short time on earth.

“He was incredibly humble himself. Just an incredible human being,” Liu said.

Lewis was one of more than 14 people who lost their lives to gun violence over this long Fourth of July Weekend.

His friends hope that his life points highlights safety concerns not only for University of Chicago students, but for residents all over Chicago.

Because no one is immune.

“And you know, we were crying with other victims, There are other families there you know Chicago has so much gun violence, like every city,” Coogan said. “It’s so senseless with so many issues going on.”

Police said Lewis was not the intended target. At last check, Area Two detectives are investigating. At last check, no offenders were in custody.

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