ENGLEWOOD — Officials are pleading with neighbors to come forward with information after a 12-year-old boy was shot and killed Sunday in Englewood.
About 6:30 p.m., officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert near 600 W. Marquette Road and found a child lying “in the middle of the block,” Gilberto Calderon, street deputy police chief, said at a news conference afterward.
Damien Green, 12, had been shot in his head, police officers later told the Sun-Times. He was found less than two blocks from his home in the 1200 block of West Marquette Road, according to the Sun-Times.
Damien was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:21 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
No one else was at the scene when officers arrived, and there were no witnesses, Calderon said.
The boy’s relatives told the Sun-Times he was walking to his grandmother’s house after playing basketball at a nearby school.
Calderon called Sunday’s shooting a “tragedy.” He said officers will “continue to follow up on any type of leads,” but “it’s up to the community to come with us to solve this type of tragedy.”
Neighbors are encouraged to call the police homicide hotline at 833-408-0069. The department will provide a reward of up to $15,000 for any information shared related to a homicide, Community Policing Director Glen Brooks said Sunday.
“As a city, as a neighborhood and as communities, we can come together and provide the information necessary to hold those individuals accountable,” Brooks said.
Ald. William Hall (6th) said he spoke with new police Supt. Larry Snelling following the shooting and Snelling relayed the message that “we should be outraged.”
“When is another kid going to get shot before we finally figure out that kids matter?” Hall said. “We won’t have a tomorrow in Chicago until we start saving kids today.”
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