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player ready...A 4-year-old Evanston boy died Wednesday afternoon after an early-morning shooting at his home.
About 6:45 a.m., police got a call about a shooting at a two-story multi-unit building in the 1800 block of Dodge Avenue, Deputy Police Chief Joseph Bellino said.
Emergency workers found the boy, Aaron Morales, in a second-floor residence with a gunshot wound in his chest, Bellino said.
He was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he underwent emergency surgery. On Wednesday afternoon, the boy was taken to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he died, according to the Cook County medical examiner.
Family members told police that the boy had found a handgun in the home and was handling it when it accidentally discharged, Bellino said.
Evanston police and the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force were looking into that and other possibilities Wednesday night.
“We’re going to investigate what was reported to us, as well as what the evidence may or may not show,” Bellino said.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services also is investigating, spokesman Jimmie Whitelow said.
The department had no previous contact with the boy’s family, according to Whitelow, who said a toddler, an infant and adults were in the home at the time.
Bellino said members of the boy’s family have been arrested in the past but could not provide more information Wednesday night.
“The [Dodge Avenue] address is a known entity to the Police Department,” he said. “Neighbors have called us about gang activity and drug activity.”
Nettie Stewart, 72, a resident of the 1800 block of Dodge Avenue for 12 years, said the home where Morales lived has been busy in recent months.
“A lot more activity started up last spring after they moved in,” Stewart said. “There are extra people hanging around on the streets after hours.”
Another neighbor, who would not give her name, said, “This was bound to happen because people have called police so many times about this house and the activity there.”
Late Wednesday afternoon, the stucco apartment building remained cordoned off with police tape as investigators worked, taking measurements in an alley.
As of Wednesday night, the state’s attorney’s office had not been notified of any charges, a spokeswoman said.
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