Nov. 06--Joi Houston had just been talking to her friend about the "senseless" slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee when she found out her own boy was seriously wounded outside his high school.
"I was distraught, like, I can't breathe, I was in the middle of traffic," Houston said. She clutched her black cardigan tight in front of Comer Children's Hospital on Thursday night, waiting for an update from doctors about her 14-year-old son.
"I know he's going to be OK," Houston said. "I'm praying he will be OK."
Police said the boy was shot in the chest about 4:30 p.m. in an apparent drive-by in the 2700 block of East 89th Street. Students from nearby Bowen High School said they heard about eight shots fired and saw teens running down 89th following the attack.
The boy was taken to Comer in serious-to-critical condition, and police said they were questioning a person of interest.
Houston's son is a freshman at Baker College Prep, which is on the same block as Bowen. He loves basketball and football. Most of all, he keeps out of trouble, Houston said.
"My son is just the sweetest kid," she said. "And he just stays to himself. He's not one of those rowdy kids. He just stays to himself."
Authorities said the boy does not have an arrest record.
Houston said she was on the phone with a friend earlier Thursday, talking about Tyshawn who was fatally shot in an alley near his home Monday afternoon.
"I was just telling her that this is just senseless, it don't make no sense," said Houston, 35.
Not long afterward, she was driving to pick up her son from Baker when she got another phone call, this time from the school about her son.
Her son kept apologizing at the hospital and saying he was scared, that he didn't want to go to school, Houston said.
"I thought I was going to be OK, but when I saw him (at the hospital), I started to cry," said the boy's older brother, who is 17. "He couldn't really move his arms. He couldn't really say, 'I love you,' back. It's hard to see him like that."
