CHICAGO (WLS) — A 7-year-old boy shot while inside his Humboldt Park home Wednesday night has died, Chicago police said.
Chicago police said officers responded to the 2600-block of West Potomac Avenue shortly before 8:30 p.m. and found the boy inside a home with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
Police said they received multiple calls of shots fired near Rockwell Street and Potomac, shortly followed by another call specifically about the child. Police believe there was a shooting in the alley behind the home, and said they found multiple shell casings there.
Police said a family member told them the boy was in the bathroom when a bullet came through the window and struck him. Police said they do not believe anyone inside the residence was an intended target of the shooting.
“It’s tragic. Any person that’s shot in the city is tragic. When it’s a young child like this, an innocent child, allegedly under the safety of their own home, it’s direly tragic, something that we take seriously,” Detective Chief Ron Pontecore said. “We’re going to deploy a lot of resources to the area to try and get to the bottom of this and find out who is responsible for this.”
The child was taken to Stroger Hospital in critical condition. He was undergoing surgery as of 10:50 p.m.
At about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, police said he had died.
Police said they are reviewing private video of the incident and are asking anyone else with video or information to contact them at 312-746-6554.
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No one is currently in custody. An investigation by Area Five detectives is ongoing.
In a separate and unrelated shooting just minutes later on the South Side, a 15-year-old boy was killed.
Chicago police said the teen was walking outside at about 8:45 p.m., near 77th Street and South Vernon Avenue in Chatham, when he was shot by a gunman traveling in a white Jeep.
The teen was shot multiple times in the leg and torso and rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition, but police said he ultimately did not survive his injuries.
No one has been caught. Area Two detectives are investigating.
The statistics have become staggering.
According to ABC7 Chicago data, 298 children have been shot, 41 fatally, so far this year.
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