Teen Questioned In Shooting Of 7-Year-Old Boy
Updated 08/19/13 - 2:08 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police were questioning a person of interest Monday afternoon in the shooting of a 7-year-old boy who was walking home from a picnic with his family.
Tyvion Jackson was shot in the arm around 9 p.m. Sunday, as he was on the front porch of his home in the 4200 block of West Fifth Avenue.
Tyvion and his family were coming home from a picnic. He had been riding his bike, and was getting ready to go inside, when a gunman opened fire at a passing car. Police said the boy was not the intended victim.
Tyvion's mother, Tasha McDuffie, said her son was helping his cousin bring her bike in the house when he was shot.
"As they got in between the two doors, shots rang out, and hit him under his arm, and in his shoulder," she said. "He's doing fairly well, he's just traumatized, and he's afraid to come outside."
She said her son should make a full physical recovery, but she's angry he wasn't safe from gun violence on the steps of his own home.
"I'm very angry, because he's 7 years old, he's a kid. Kids are supposed to be able to play outdoors, be able to go in their home," McDuffie said. "Your home is your comfort zone, so he should be able to go in the house, and get ready for bed, and go to school like normal kids, but instead he gets shot going inside his house."
Police said an argument nearby led to the shooting, and the stray shot that hit Tyvion. A teenager who lives in the area was taken into custody, and was being questioned Monday afternoon, according to Police News Affairs. Charges could be filed within the next day.
McDuffie had a message for the gunman's family.
"People have to wake up, be aware of what's going on around you. People need to know where their kids are, and what their kids are doing, because what you do affects other families, and their kids," she said.
Neighbors said they heard three to seven shots, and saw a car speeding away from the scene.
"Me and my cousin was coming up the block, and we heard the gunshots, and by the time we got right here to the corner, we heard everybody on the porch screaming, and we seen the little boy laying on the porch," Lavelle Tubbs said.
Two bullets hit the boy in the arm. Witnesses said the gunman ran through the courtyard of Charles Sumner Math & Science Community Academy Elementary School, across the street. The car he shot at fled the scene.
Sumner originally was going to be a welcoming school, but a nearby school that was on the school closings list was spared at the 11th hour.
The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, and was released by early Monday morning.
A relative of the boy said the family was shaken up, and wanted privacy Monday morning.
"They're grieving right now, that's her only son," Regina Yancy said. "The whole concern is the baby right now. They don't need all of this. The world already knows, it was on the news, so they just need some comfort and prayer."
Neighbor Joyce Pruitt said, "He's a sweetie, you know, just a normal 7-year-old boy. Rides his bike, climbs trees, and plays around with baseball and stuff like that; very sweet."
Neighbors said the area is relatively safe.
"Everybody was just screaming and hollering, because he's a 7 year old boy. Everybody was shocked, and mainly shocked because none of us would have never thought that this would happen right here," Tubbs said. "This is the safest part of the neighborhood, for them to play here. I know all the kids right here. They come out, play right here, or they play by the school."
Jeannette Pruitt said after the boy was shot, neighbors on the block prayed for him.
She said gun violence has not been a problem for that block, but it's a different story just a few blocks away.
"In this block, we haven't had no problem. Now, you go to Pulaski, it's different. We haven't had no problem here," she said.
Jeannette Pruitt said she's lived on that street for more than 40 years, and this was the first time there was a shooting on the block.
