A one-year-old boy was shot dead in his car seat while on the way home from a trip out with his mum.
The pair were travelling from a Chicago laundrette when the baby was shot once in the chest, reports said.
A vehicle pulled up alongside them and someone inside reportedly began firing.
The baby, who was sitting in a child's seat in the back of his mother's car, received a bullet to his chest, Chicago police Chief Fred Waller told reporters.
The mum was also injured, suffering a grazed head, the Sun reports.
The 22-year-old mum drove her child to hospital but tragically the 20-month-old was pronounced dead, police confirmed.
Neither the mum nor the baby have been named in reports.
Pastor Donovan Price, who according to his Twitter works with families devastated by violence in Chicago, posted a series of tweets on the tragic incident.
"A one year old has been shot and killed," the Pastor said.
"I really wish I had something to say...when I got ready to leave to go to this shooting I took a towel with me...
"I didn't expect to be filled with the blood of the mother of this 1 year old and to hold her and the father...and feel their level of pain...
"This is one of if not the first time that I just want to sit on the curb and cry."
Police have indicated that they do not believe it was a random shooting, from their initial investigations.
The weapon is yet to be recovered but evidence suggests it was a handgun.
Mr Waller said they would catch the killer.
Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, said in a series of tweets yesterday: "The pain of losing a child never goes away.
"Today, we lost more young people to the gun violence epidemic: a 17-year-old in Humboldt Park and a 1-year-old in Englewood.
"As a mother, I am tired of the funerals. I am tired of burying our children."
"Father Mike Pfleger says that with every death of a child, we are burying our future.
"He's right and we must do better.
"It's on all of us. It's on all of us to find the courage to be a part of the solution."
