A 3-year-old boy was shot in the face and died shortly after the shooting on Sunday afternoon in Chicago’s south side, according to local reports.
Police found the boy at about 4:15 p.m. local time at a home at the 9600 block of South Escanaba in South Deering, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The boy was suffering from a gunshot wound to the face.
The child was rushed to Advocate Trinity Hospital where he was later pronounced dead, police said according to the paper.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office did not immediately confirm the boy’s death, according to multiple reports.
Police spokesperson Anthony Gugliemi initially indicated in a Twitter post that the shooting may have been an accident.
He recounted that the boy’s family had told police they heard a gunshot while in another room, only to then find the boy with a gun.
Gugliemi wrote that the Department of Children and Family Services “has also been called in to assist.”
Tragic news as this young child has succombed to injuries. Family reports to police that they heard a gunshot while in another room and found their child with a gun. We extend our deepest condolences as detectives continue to investigate. DCFS has also been called in to assist
— Anthony Guglielmi (@AJGuglielmi) July 29, 2019
The Chicago Tribune reported that no neighbors had reported hearing any gunshots.
A 16-year-old neighbor who lived a few houses down, Lizbeth Munoz, told the Tribune that she had seen a man and a woman run out of the home, and they were carrying what she deemed to be an unconscious child to a car before driving off.
Fox News noted that the boy was one of nine people who had been shot dead over the weekend. The outlet reported that Lori Lightfoot, the city’s new mayor, has been meeting with police weekly to review weekend shooting statistics in the city and propose solutions for the situation.
Lightfoot said earlier in July that “it feels like we are losing the streets.”
1-Year-Old Boy Shot in the Head
Earlier this year, a 1-year-old boy met a similar situation. The boy was shot in the head on Feb. 7 while he was sitting in the back passenger side of a parked car outside a relative’s home, police officials said.
Miraculously, he survived the shooting. The boy was later identified as Dejon Irving.
CBS reported that Irving was sitting in the car with his grandmother, mother, 5-year-old brother, and 4-year-old cousin when a dark-colored sedan pulled up. A person inside the sedan then shot nine times into the car but only one of the bullets caused any injury, hitting the boy’s head.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the grandmother told police she had heard her car windows shatter and saw her grandson shot in the head as she turned around.
The boy was rushed to the hospital. He was in critical condition and had to be on life support for three weeks before his miraculous recovery, CBS reported.
NTD Reporter Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
From NTD News
