Boy In Psychiatric Care After Being Shot By Elderly Woman
ARTICLE: Gun-Wielding Senior Margaret Matthews Speaks
CHICAGO (CBS) - A 12-year-old boy who was shot by an elderly South Shore homeowner after he allegedly threw bricks at her is in psychiatric care, recovering from the trauma of being shot, his mother said Tuesday.
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The boy did not appear in juvenile court along side his alleged 13-year-old accomplice Tuesday morning because he has been in the hospital since Oct. 3. That is less than a week after he was shot in the shoulder outside the woman's home on the 7600 block of South Cole September 28, his mother told Judge Andrew Berman.
"You're gonna have vigilantes all over the city taking matters into their own hands,'' the boy's mother said after the hearing. "A 12-year-old boy getting shot? Wouldn't you be traumatized?''
Berman ordered the 13-year-old accomplice not to have any contact with Margaret Matthews, 68, who shot his friend.
Both boys are charged with aggravated assault; Matthews has not been charged.
The boys had terrorized the woman and the neighborhood for months before she finally snapped and shot the boy, neighbors said at the time.
"That boy terrorized this neighborhood," resident Ronald Hunt said.
The alleged accomplice, who stood well below five-feet tall and wore a white polo shirt in front of the judge, spoke softly when confirming his identity and saying his only contact with his father is by phone.
His mother told the judge the boy's father does not support the family financially.
A trial date was set for November 18.
