CHICAGO _ A 3-year-old girl is in serious condition after she was shot in the head as she rode in the back seat of her father's SUV early Wednesday in the South Shore neighborhood, Chicago police said.
The girl was in the back seat of a white Chevrolet SUV when the shooting occurred at 12:45 a.m. in the 2400 block of East 74th Street, police said. Her parents told police they were driving when two men standing on the corner fired shots in their direction, hitting the child.
The parents flagged down another driver, who took them to Jackson Park Hospital, police said in a media notification. The girl was transferred to Comer Children's Hospital in serious condition. The girl had a bullet lodged in her forehead, according to a source. She suffered scratches to the eye, possibly from shattered glass, according to the media notification.
It's unknown who was the intended target, police said. The girl's parents are not "known to police," according to a media notification, which is police shorthand for saying that someone does not have a known criminal or arrest record.
The father's SUV was found in the 2200 block of East 73rd Street, according to a law enforcement source. It had bullet holes and there was blood in the back seat.
Police have viewed security footage from a gas station at 75th Street and Yates Boulevard that show the father involved in what appeared to be an "illegal transaction" at one of the gas pumps with another man, the source said. During the transaction, there was a disagreement and the father got a handgun from his SUV and chased down the man.
Soon after, the city's gunshot monitoring system, ShotSpotter, soon notified police about 11 rounds fired in the 2400 block of East 74th Street, the source said. Shell casing were found on the sidewalk in the block.
No arrests have been made.
