3-YEAR-OLD GIRL SHOT IN WEST ENGLEWOOD
A 3-year-old girl was shot Tuesday while she was outside in West Englewood, authorities said.
The girl was struck by a bullet in the upper torso before 8 p.m. near 70th Street and Damen Avenue, police and fire officials said.
The girl was in a yard or on a porch when she was hit by shots fired from a vehicle, police said.
She was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in “critical but stable” condition, officials said.
“This cannot be our new normal, people,” Chicago police Chief of Operations Fred Waller said at the scene Tuesday night. “Our babies are being shot. These are our babies.”
Police were investigating whether the girl’s shooting was related to an incident less than 30 minutes earlier when a 15-year-old boy was wounded by gunfire less than a halfmile away. The teen was in the 7100 block of South Honore when he was shot in the calf and buttocks. He was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, according to police.
The girl was the latest victim in a rash of shootings that have left children and teens dead or wounded across the city.
In fact, she was the fourth child age 3 or younger to be shot in Chicago in the last 10 days. Two of those four died. Several teens also have been killed in the last two weeks.