A teenage girl was accidentally shot in the face Saturday afternoon in the Little Village neighborhood, marking the fourth juvenile hit by accidental gunfire in the city since Friday night and the seventh child wounded in Chicago gun violence over an 18-hour span.
The latest shooting happened about 1:15 p.m. inside an apartment building near 24th Street and Troy, where a 14-year-old girl was with a 15-year-old “male acquaintance” who was handling a gun, according to Chicago police.
The weapon went off, striking her in the cheek, police said. She was taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition. The boy was in custody Saturday afternoon.
Red police tape sectioned off the apartment where the shooting took place Saturday afternoon, with police officers idling in squad cars near the scene as detectives investigated.
About 10:20 p.m. Friday, a boy was playing with a gun inside a Bronzeville neighborhood home and it discharged, hitting an 8-year-old boy in the shoulder and grazing a 12-year-old girl’s arm, police said. Both were hospitalized in fair condition. It wasn’t clear who the gun belongs to, police said.
And another accidental shooting happened just before 8 p.m. Friday, when a 7-year-old girl got hold of a gun and it went off in Lawndale, hitting her 11-year-old brother in the neck, police said. He was listed in serious condition at Stroger Hospital.
Additionally, three teenagers were among six people wounded in a Parkway Gardens shooting about 9 p.m. on the South Side. Two girls, ages 14 and 15, were each shot multiple times during a gathering at a building near 65th Street and King Drive, and a third girl, also 14, was shot in the leg. The other 14-year-old, shot in the back and shoulder, was in critical condition. The others were listed in good condition.
Arrests or potential charges have not been announced in any of the cases. At least five adults also have been wounded in shootings so far this weekend.
Activists planned to hold an news conference Saturday afternoon near 63rd and King to highlight the spate of violence.
Last weekend marked the city’s most violent February weekend in almost two decades, with nine murders.
