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Boy, 11, Found Dead With Gunshot Wound In West Pullman

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Investigators were questioning three people, after an 11-year-old boy was found dead early Monday inside a home in the West Pullman neighborhood.

Police said officers responded to an EMS call for an unresponsive child around 1 a.m. near 119th and Peoria.

When officers arrived, they found 11-year-old Jechon Anderson on the floor of a second-floor apartment. Police initially said the boy had suffered blunt trauma to the head, but later said the Cook County Medical Examiner's office had determined the boy was shot. An autopsy has not yet been performed to determine how the boy died.

It was not immediately clear if the boy was shot intentionally or accidentally, but police said they are "investigating all possible motives, including domestic related."

Police did not say how many people were inside the home at the time, but they said detectives were questioning three people. However, no one has been arrested.

"When you hear something like this, it hits home whether it's your child or not. You want to call your grandchildren and your children; 'Hey, are you okay?'" said Willard Roberts, who works as a case manager at an Illinois Department of Human Services family resource center across the street. "The whole neighborhood's heart goes out when something occurs like that."

Charles Lorenzo McPhee, a father of two who lives nearby, said he couldn't imagine this outcome for any child.

"It's sad, because there's no excuse for an 11-year-old to be dead," he said.

Area South detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.

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