Man gets 30 years for shooting young girls at Northwest Side park

(CHICAGO) A man who shot two girls at a Northwest Side park in 2011—prompting police to declare all-out war on the Maniac Latin Disciples gang—has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Antonio Bucio, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder at a hearing Monday before Judge Matthew Coghlan, who handed down the sentence, according to court records.

Bucio was gunning for rival Latin Kings on June 8, 2011, when he shot two girls playing at a sandbox at Avondale Park near Belmont and Central Park, the Chicago Sun-Times reported previously.

A 2-year-old was grazed in the head, and a 7-year-old seriously wounded in the back, authorities said at the time.

Bucio was an alleged member of the Maniac Latin Disciples, the Sun-Times reported. Following the shooting, Police Supt. Gary McCarthy declared war on the entire gang, which had between 300 and 500 members in Chicago at the time.

“We’re going to obliterate that gang,” McCarthy told police brass at a meeting later that June. “Every one of their locations has to get blown up until they cease to exist.”

More than 1,800 arrests followed, and authorities impounded more than 100 cars and recovered two dozen guns by early 2012, according to the Sun-Times.

Bucio will receive credit for nearly four years spent in jail since his arrest, and will be required to serve three years of mandatory supervised release after prison, according to court records.

The FBI is still seeking the alleged getaway driver in the shooting, 35-year-old Dionisio Gonzalez, the agency said in a statement last week.

Gonzalez has not been seen in the Chicago area since the shooting, and is thought to have fled to avoid prosecution, the FBI said. His last known address in Chicago was in the 3000 block of West Belden. He also has associates and family in Miami and may be in Florida.

The FBI, Chicago Police and Cook County sheriff’s office are coordinating the search for Gonzalez, and are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI at (312) 421-6700.