5-year-old critically injured in Rogers Park shooting; 25-year-old also shot
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 5-year-old is in critical condition after he was shot in the head in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood Sunday afternoon.
According to the Chicago Police Department, the child and a 25-year-old man were both shot when they were traveling in a vehicle in the 7600 block of North Paulina just after 5 p.m.
The child's grandfather told CBS 2 his mother had just taken him to see his father. They had just put him safely in the back seat when someone in a black Hyundai drove alongside the victims' vehicle, and someone inside started shooting.
The 25-year-old was shot in the left hand and shoulder and drove himself to St. Francis Hospital.
The 5-year-old, who police originally believed to be 6, was shot in the head.
"Somebody pulled up and started shooting. My daughter tried to pull out. She pulled off and she looked in her rearview mirror and that's when she looked back and she saw my grandson shot trying to breathe. She took him out of the seat put him in the seat with her and then drove him to the hospital," the grandfather said.
He was at at Lurie Children's Hospital in critical condition Sunday night.
The little boy's grandfather said the hours following the shooting are a blur. He has no idea how to tell his own 8-year-old son that his little nephew won't be on the school bus with him Monday.
"A baby. Kindergarten! Kindergarten! Not even first grade. Kindergarten. You know how excited these kids need to go to kindergarten? And now he has to go through this," his grandfather said.
His grandson was excited to start his first full week of school.
"He was proud he's going to be riding the bus with my son, his uncle. And they were going going to be going to school together and now we're going through this," he said. "It's senseless."
He's going to miss that first full week.
"He didn't do nothing to nobody!" his grandfather said. "My grandbaby is in there fighting for his life. He's a fighter. He's fighting for his life."
No one is in custody as Area Three detectives investigate.
