5-Month-Old Boy, 2 Men Shot On Near North Side
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 5-month-old boy and two adult men were shot and wounded late Tuesday on the Near North Side.
As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported, the baby was with the two men on the Near North Side when someone pulled up opening fire outside an apartment building.
Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter said Near North (18th) District officers were called around 7 p.m. to 1365 N. Hudson Ave., between Blackhawk Street and Evergreen Avenue in the Marshall Field Garden Apartments, for reports of a shooting.
For reasons still unknown, a red Hyundai sport-utility vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired shots.
The 5-month-old boy had suffered a graze wound to the temple. He was taken to Lurie Children's Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.
The adults -- ages 19 and 25 -- were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where their conditions were also stabilized, police said.
The red Hyundai took off from the scene, but Chicago Police went on to spot it on Lake Shore Drive. A pursuit started, and the chase later moved to the southbound lanes of the Dan Ryan Expressway.
Police did not say how high speeds reached.
The pursuit ended near 37th Street and Princeton Avenue, when the SUV exited the expressway. At that point, police said the men in the SUV jumped out and started running, but police apprehended them both.
Two guns were recovered in the vehicle, Carter said.
Carter called this latest string of violence involving a child downright senseless.
"As you know, this is not normal for anyone, whether it's Chicago or any other city around this country, it is quite heartbreaking, so to speak, to see that everybody has no disregard for anyone's life, let alone a 5-month-old child," Carter said. "They are in harm's way no matter who the intended victim was, or the original intended victim was. There's no regard for anyone's life, especially that of a child who has yet to grow up and experience this world. It's quite tragic, what we're seeing now happening around the country and around the world."
Police said they arrested the two suspected perpetrators without injuries to them, officers, or anyone else on the expressway.
The boy is at least the 12th child age 10 or under to be shot in Chicago since mid-June. Four of those children have died:
- On July 4th, 7-year-old Natalia Wallace was shot in the head while playing in her grandmother's front yard in the South Austin neighborhood. Police and prosecutors say a group of gunmen opened fire on the 100 block of North Latrobe Avenue, in apparent retaliation for an earlier shooting that killed a brother of one of the shooters. The accused getaway driver is being held without bail on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery. Police are looking for the three shooters.
- On June 28th, 10-year-old Lena Nunez was killed when a stray bullet pierced the window of an apartment in Logan Square, as a group of men apparently was shooting at someone else on the street outside.
- On June 27th, 1-year-old Sincere Gaston was shot and killed while riding home from the laundromat with his mother in Englewood. His mother was also grazed by a bullet. Police have said the shooter may have been targeting Sincere's father, who was not in the car.
- On June 20th, 3-year-old Mekhi James was shot in the back while riding in his stepfather's SUV on the 600 block of North Central Avenue. He was taken to the hospital in serious condition, but later was pronounced dead. Police have said the shooter was targeting the 27-year-old stepfather.
