SOUTH AUSTIN — A 9-year-old boy and his mother were shot Wednesday afternoon on the West Side, just a few blocks from where a toddler was shot and killed earlier this summer.
The shooting occurred about 1:15 p.m. in the 300 block of North Central Avenue, police said.
The boy and his mom, 27, were standing on the sidewalk when someone in a dark-colored car pulled up and two people got out of the car, police said.
The two started shooting in the direction of a group of people standing at the corner, but they instead hit mother and son, Supt. David Brown said at a press conference Wednesday near the scene.
The two were shot in their lower backs and are in critical condition, Brown said. The shooters fled north on Central Avenue.
The mother and son were not the intended targets of the attack, Brown said.
There are police observation device cameras and cameras from area businesses nearby, and police will be reviewing that footage to try to identify the shooters, Brown said. He urged anyone with information to come forward.
“Someone knows who these suspects are,” Brown said. “We’ve seen communities in the recent weeks come forward with information to solve violent crime. Those communities were made safer once we captured and brought the violent offenders to justice. We need the community’s help in order to solve senseless crimes like this.”
You can submit information anonymously via cpdtip.com or you can call investigators at 312-746-8386.
As Brown was talking, Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan was making a similar plea for community assistance at the scene of an another recent shooting of a child on the South Side.
On Saturday, the 12-year-old son of a Chicago firefighter was shot several times in his legs in Woodlawn.
Deenihan said Wednesday police posted video on their website showing the attackers coming out of the gangway and shooting into Mamie Till-Mobley Park.
“I’m asking for the community’s assistance because the witnesses in this case cannot identify the shooters,” Deenihan said. “But we did release video of some of the shooters and we’re hoping the community can identify them so the detectives can go and do their job.”
The boys are the latest in a long line of children who have been shot this summer.
Earlier this month, 9-year-old Janari Ricks was shot to death in Cabrini Green, not long after young children marched in a Kids Lives Matter demonstration in Woodlawn protesting gun violence.
RELATED: In ‘Kids Lives Matter’ March, Woodlawn Youth Speak Out Against Gun Violence
Days later, an 8-year-old boy was wounded in North Lawndale.
On July 30, an 8-year-old boy was among two shot in Altgeld Gardens in the Far South Side, according to the Sun-Times.
On July 27, a baby was shot and critically wounded while riding in a car on the Bishop Ford Expressway in the Far South Side.
On July 22, a 3-year-old girl was shot and seriously wounded in South Shore.
On July 16, a 5-month-old baby was wounded in a shooting in Old Town when a bullet grazed his eye.
On July 4, 7-year-old Natalia Wallace was fatally shot while visiting family in Austin.
On June 30, a 3-year-old girl was shot and wounded in Englewood.
On June 27, 20-month-old Sincere Gaston was shot and killed in Englewood. The same night, 10-year-old Lena Nunez Anaya was fatally shot in Logan Square.
On June 22, a 3-year-old girl was wounded when a bullet grazed her in Chicago Lawn.
On June 20, 3-year-old Mekhi James and 13-year-old Amaria Jones were killed in separate shootings on the West Side.
Deenihan said police were able to arrest and charge people in the killings of Lena, Natalia, Janari and teenagers Jasean Francis and Charles Riley in South Shore because neighbors told police what they knew and allowed detectives to view private surveillance video, which helped identify the people involved.
“The overall message here is we need the community’s input to solve these cases,” Deenihan said. “Detectives are working extremely hard but the video technology plus the witness cooperation is what brings these cases to a conclusion.”
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