Jan. 02--A family was headed home in the Back of the Yards neighborhood after buying snacks when teens started throwing rocks at their car and the mother screamed for her children to get down.
She turned and saw her 7-year-old son unconscious and bleeding from the head.
"She seen guys running up to the car and she told her kids to get down, but the boy who got hit was sleeping so he didn't hear it," said Ashley Alarcon, a relative. "When the brick came in, it just fell on his face. It shattered the glass."
The family rushed to a nearby fire station, and the boy was taken in serious condition to Mount Sinai Hospital on Tuesday evening, then transferred to UIC Medical Center.
Alarcon said a chunk of concrete shattered several bones around his face and sent glass flying into his eyes. The boy had trouble speaking at first and was vomiting blood, she said.
But doctors are hopeful because the boy began talking on New Year's Day and wanted to walk around, Alarcon said. "He's on a liquid diet, he can't really have food right now," she said. "But so far everything is coming back normally so he should be a regular boy again."
The family was headed home to watch movies when the three teens attacked about 8 p.m. in the 1500 block of West 46th Street, Alarcon and police said. They picked up large rocks and pieces of concrete and threw them at the car, according to a police report.
The boy's father tried to drive away, but the rear window shattered. The mother looked around and saw the boy unresponsive in the back seat, "blood streaming from his head," the police report said.
The family does not have any gang affiliation, and family members have heard that the car was a mistaken target.
Police said three teens ranged in age from 13 to 18. No one was in custody.
