A 1-year-old boy was shot in the head in the back seat of his grandmother’s SUV Thursday evening in a possible case of mistaken identity in the Longwood Manor neighborhood on the Far South Side.
The boy was in the vehicle about 5:30 p.m. when shots rang out in the 9900 block of South Throop, according to Chicago police.
The grandmother, who was in the driver’s seat, told police she had stopped in front of a family member’s house when she heard windows shatter and looked back to find her grandson shot in the head.
She drove the infant to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park before he was transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital, police said.
Four other people in the vehicle were not hurt, according to police.
The boy remained in critical condition at Comer, where more than a dozen family members gathered inside the lobby of the emergency room.
Witnesses told police the gunshots came from a dark, older model car, police said.
Detectives are looking into whether the shooter had the wrong target. A motive was unknown late Thursday.
Police said they were checking nearby traffic and surveillance cameras to see where the shooter’s car headed after the shooting.
“We are praying for this young boy as detectives search area for possible crime & traffic cameras that may have captured the offending vehicles direction of flight,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in a tweet.
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, a South Side priest known for his social activism, offered a $5,000 reward for anyone who identifies a shooter by Sunday night.
Witnesses are urged to submit tips to cpdtip.com as Area South detectives investigate.
