CHICAGO _ The two young brothers had always wanted to go to the Gotcha Faded barbershop in West Garfield Park, and Thursday night they finally got their chance.
The boys, 11 and 12, had been in the busy shop for less than an hour when two gunmen entered shortly after 6 p.m., looked around, then walked back out, turned and started firing, according to Chicago police.
The 11-year-old was hit in the back, abdomen and left arm, and his older brother in the right knee, police said. Three others in the shop were also shot: A 16-year-old boy wounded in the right hip, a 30-year-old man hit in the left arm and a 40-year-old barber shot twice in his right leg.
A toddler in the shop was not wounded, police said.
Responding officers applied tourniquets to the barber and one of the boys, police said. An officer also applied a compression bandage to one of the other boys.
The three boys were taken to Stroger Hospital in serious-to-critical condition, fire officials said. The barber was brought to Mount Sinai Hospital in fair condition, and the other man took a private ambulance to Loretto Hospital.
No one was in custody.
The boys' mother, Cierra Mobley, said both her sons underwent surgery at Stroger. "I'm very emotional, I'm real upset," she told reporters outside the hospital.
She said the boys had "really wanted to go" to the barbershop. "They were only there for like an hour before I got that phone call."
Mobley said her sons are kind-hearted and love basketball.
Chicago Police Deputy Chief of Patrol Ernest Cato told reporters at the scene that it was too soon to determine a motive. "We have to do something about this violence," he said. "And this is going to be a cooperation with the community and organizations. This will not be tolerated anymore."
Detectives are reviewing surveillance video that shows the shooting, police said.
