Police investigate the scene in Cornell Square Park where 11 people including a three-year-old child were shot on September 19, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.
Updated at 10:38 a.m. on September 20, 2013
A gunman opened fire in a Chicago park on Thursday night, wounding 13 people, including a three-year-old boy who was shot in the head. Eyewitnesses told the New York Times that a man with dreadlocks in a gray sedan seemed to be firing randomly at passersby in Cornell Square Park and on an adjoining street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood around 10:15 p.m. One eyewitness called it the usual “gangbanging stuff.” Chicago police told the Tribune a total of 13 people were shot: the boy, 10 adults, and two teens. Three people, including the toddler, are in critical condition, but there were no reported deaths at the scene.
Pastor Corey Brooks of the New Beginnings Church has been communicating with the boy’s family and told the Chicago Sun-Times that he is “doing fine” after surgery and is in serious but stable condition.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the incident “senseless and brazen” and vowed that the shooters would be “brought to justice.” He cancelled his attendance at a New Jersey political event to return to Chicago.