2019-11-01 22:52:49
A 15-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a 7-year-old trick-or-treater on Halloween on Chicago’s West Side was named as the primary suspect on Friday evening, according to Chicago police.
The update came just hours after police revealed that investigators had identified a person of interest who was wearing a “Jason” mask when he was involved in the shooting of the 7-year-old girl.
Chicago police Supt. Eddie Johnson said made the identification using “very clear and very helpful” video obtained in the investigation. He said there was a “great possibility” that the person identified was the gunman, and that he was wearing a Halloween mask of “Jason” from the movie “Friday the 13th.” It was not clear if the person seen in the video is the same person police took into custody Friday afternoon.
“The shooting yesterday was reprehensible,” Johnson said at a news conference Friday morning. “Those involved don’t deserve to be in our city. So I’m disgusted but committed to doing everything we can to find the cowards that would engage in a gun battle in the early evening hours while children were trick-or-treating.”
Johnson said there were multiple individuals involved in the shooting, which took place at around 5:30 p.m. in the 3700 block of West 26th Street in the city’s Little Village neighborhood.
Authorities said the girl was on the sidewalk, walking eastbound on 26th Street while trick-or-treating with her family. Three males on the south side of the street began chasing a 30-year-old man in the same area, according to police, who said one of them then took out a gun and opened fire.
The girl – who was dressed in a bumblebee costume, according to multiple reports – was shot in the lower neck and taken to Stroger Hospital where she remained in critical condition early Friday, according to police.
In a statement released by Cook County Health, the girl’s family said they were “grateful for the outpouring of love and support shown by all of Chicago and the nation.”