CHICAGO _ A 3-year-old girl was shot Tuesday night in the West Englewood neighborhood of Chicago, officials said.
The girl was shot in the chest shortly before 8 p.m. on South Damen Avenue, police said.
She was taken to Comer Children's Hospital and was in critical condition but had been stabilized, Chicago police Chief Fred Waller said at the scene.
"This is not and this cannot be our new normal. This cannot be. Where is the outrage?" Waller said. "Our babies are being shot. These are our babies."
The girl may have been on the porch or in the front yard when she was shot, Waller said.
"This is something that can't be ignored," he said. "These are our babies being shot randomly, recklessly. People are just shooting recklessly without any regard for who they shoot."
On Tuesday night, crime tape stretched across Damen. Bursts of fireworks went off in all directions.
A woman visiting friends said she was sitting on their couch when she heard a series of shots.
"I'm like, they're shooting out here, when there's kids out here?" the woman said. "As soon as I came out, all the yellow tape was up."
Earlier Tuesday, shortly after 7 p.m., a 15-year-old boy was shot on South Honore Street, also in West Englewood, when an unknown black vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots, police said. The boy was struck in the calf and buttocks, and was transported to University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition. No one was in custody, and detectives were investigating.
The shootings of the 3-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy follow a weekend during which three children, including a 20-month-old boy, were fatally shot. Those deaths came one week after five children were fatally shot, including 3-year-old Mekhi James.
On Saturday, Sincere Gaston, a 20-month-old boy, died after he was shot in a car seat while riding with his mom in the Englewood neighborhood. Later that day, Lena Nunez, a 10-year-old girl, was struck in the head by a stray bullet that came through a second-floor apartment window in Logan Square, according to police. Also on Saturday, a 17-year-old boy, identified as Antiwon Douglas, was fatally shot before noon in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.
In the first six months of the year, Chicago has experienced a large spike in shootings and homicides over the same time last year, seeing a jump of more than 25% in the number of homicides, reaching 295, which is 60 more than the same period a year ago, according to a review of crime statistics. According to the statistics, 96 of those occurred during a 28-day stretch that covered most of June.
