A 2-year-old boy was in critical condition after being shot multiple times in a North Lawndale apartment Thursday afternoon, according to Chicago police.
The boy was shot several times in the lower body shortly after 4 p.m. and a person of interest was in custody, police said.
Around 4:30 p.m., dozens of police officers gathered outside a four-unit apartment in the 3800 block of West 14th Street. Detectives and evidence technicians were coming in and out of the first floor apartment. A woman was sitting on the stairs, wrapped in a blanket and sobbing.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know.”
A second woman emerged from the crowd of police officers and walked to the middle of the street to make a call.
“Your grandson was shot,” she said over the phone. “Listen to me. Your grandson was shot.
Before heading to Stroger Hospital, where the boy had been taken for treatment, she told officers she wanted to retrieve something from the building. The police blocked the entrance. It was now a crime scene, they said.
Across the street, two police officers briefly studied a bloody napkin with cartoon drawings that someone had placed on the hood of a police car. A passerby asked the police if the child had survived. They didn’t know it.
A woman in a pink coat ran up to the building and told police it was her building. She was also unable to enter and retreated to the sidewalk. Someone gave him a sweatshirt to wear over his coat.
Shortly after, a police officer waved her over from where she was with a group of neighbors. He said police recovered a gun from the apartment and informed her they needed to make sure there were no other weapons inside. He handed her a clipboard.
“If you sign this consent form, it will make things a lot easier,” he said. “Do you agree?”
The woman looked at the form.
“No,” she said. “But I don’t really have a choice.”
If she didn’t sign it, the department would obtain a search warrant for the property, the officer said. Another man came to speak with the woman. A few minutes later, he shouted towards the house where the officers were located: “Bring the form!”
Detectives were investigating the shooting.
About 45 minutes earlier Thursday, police said two men were injured in a drive-by shooting while standing on a sidewalk in the 800 block of North Trumbull Avenue in Humboldt Park.
One of the men, 21, was shot in the right arm and taken to Humboldt Park Medical Center in good condition. The other man, 33, was shot four times in the back and went alone to Humboldt Park Medical Center, where police said he was in critical condition.
Detectives were investigating the shooting and no one was in custody.
