Boy, 7, hit in chin by bullet fragment while riding with family in Chicago

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO—A 7-year-old boy was hit in the chin by a bullet fragment as he and his family were driving through the Bucktown neighborhood Thursday night, according to Chicago police.

The boy was taken to St. Mary’s of Nazareth Hospital in good condition, police said.

The family’s car was in the 1600 block of North Claremont Avenue when “known offenders” fired shots, police said. Three other people were in the car but were not injured: A 56-year-old woman, an 18-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man.

Yellow crime scene tape stretched across an alley intersecting Claremont, marking a small and quiet crime scene. A group of people argued with one another and police officers on Oakley Street nearby.

The boy was among 11 people hit by gunfire over 12 hours in Chicago Thursday and early Friday.

While officers worked the scene in Bucktown, a 24-year-old man was shot and killed in Englewood on the South Side, police said.

Two people shot at the man as he drove in the 2000 block of West 71st Street about 12:15 a.m. Friday. A bullet hit him in the head and he crashed into a gate, police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Evidence markers were placed near more than 20 shell casings in the street. Police taped off most of the block of single-family homes.

Several people stood around the western edge of the scene, while others gathered in groups on porches. One woman cried out that the man was her uncle and she wouldn’t leave while his body was still there.

Earlier, a 28-year-old man was shot in the head about a mile away. He was with a 23-year-old man in the 6400 block of South Hoyne Avenue around 7 p.m. when a car pulled up and someone inside started shooting, police said. The 28-year-old was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead. The younger man was taken to the same hospital with a gunshot wound to the hip.

The day’s first homicide occurred in the Lawndale neighborhood in the 4900 block of Arthington Street. About 12:50 p.m., a 28-year-old man was shot and killed, and another man, 22, was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital in good condition.