Two youngsters, one of them 12 years old, were critically wounded Thursday afternoon in a shooting in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side, according to Chicago police.
The boys, 12 and 15, had a physical squabble with an “unknown number” of people in a vacant lot in the 600 block of West 47th Street about 3:45 p.m., when one of the others pulled a handgun and opened fire, police said.
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The 12-year-old was shot in the chest, while the older teen was hit in the hip area, police said. Both boys were rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, according to police and fire officials.
Police had not released a description of the shooter or made any arrests as the investigation was just getting underway.
Despite occurring on a large street, only police officers and a single television news van lingered at the scene of the shooting more than an hour afterwards. In a gravel yard behind a building that appeared under construction, a police evidence technician placed a yellow number “10” marker card next to a stained blue backpack. A knife lay to the right.
An officer on scene said there were five shell casings.
At the hospital, anti-violence workers waited outside for the boys’ relatives to offer them services for victims of crime. Two people who appeared to be family members were eventually escorted into the hospital by police officers without commenting.