Published time: September 20, 2013 04:56
Edited time: September 21, 2013 04:48
Police investigate the scene in Cornell Square Park on the Southside where 11 people including a three-year-old child were shot on September 19, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP)
Chicago police say two gunmen attacked a crowd on a park basketball court, with at least 13 people injured in the shooting, including three-year-old, their conditions from serious to critical. The gunmen haven’t been taken into custody yet.
Chicago Fire Department officials report the child is in critical
condition.
“They hit the light pole next to me, but I ducked down and ran
into the house,” Julian Harris, uncle of the wounded child,
said. “They’ve been coming round here looking for people to
shoot every night, just gang-banging stuff. It’s what they
do.”
A witness at the scene told the Chicago Tribune that three
police officers carried the child to an ambulance.
“I didn’t hear any sounds from the child,” the witness
said.
The aunt of the boy who was shot told local reporters that her
brother was killed on Labor Day at the beginning of September in
Chicago, too. It’s her second relative affected by gun violence
this month.
Two other victims were also in critical condition, officials
say.
A witness told the Chicago Sun-Times that dreadlocked men shot at
him from a gray sedan before turning toward Cornell Square Park
and firing at other people in the area.
The attack took place about 10:15 pm local time, and fire
officials called an Emergency Medical Services Plan II, sending
at least 10 ambulances to the scene.
About 60 police officers were also deployed.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities, Chicago police
officer Amina Greer told Reuters, and no one is currently in
custody in connection with the shooting.
The territory where the shooting took place is cordoned
off.
Chicago has been torn by gun violence in recent years, racking up
more than 500 murders in 2012, according to a report this week by
the FBI.
By comparison, New York City, which has a population three times
the size of Chicago, recorded 419 murders in 2012, the FBI said.
Copyright: RT