Woman Walking With Kids Shot Near School

No students, staff at Amelia Earhart Elementary injured; Victim expected to be OK

A woman walking with her children was shot Thursday afternoon near an elementary school on Chicago's south side.

School was just getting out at Amelia Earhart Elementary School, on the 1700 block of East 93rd Street, when shots rang out on the streets packed with kids and parents.

"We heard like eight shots; big shots," said Erica Edwards, who was walking her son back to their home across the street.

Within seconds, Edwards said she heard screaming. Her neighbor, who she identified only as Carmen, was outside with her 2-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son.

"When I opened the door ... She was like, 'Erica, I was shot! I've been shot!' She was bleeding from her chest," recalled Edwards.

Another neighbor, Al Hogan, Jr., had just gotten up from his desk when bullets flew through the window and into a wall.

"That would [have been] a head shot if I was sitting here, so I'm very lucky," he said.

Neighbors said a gunfight in an alley on the next block spilled out onto the busy street. They said it's a block untouched by gun violence until today.

"It's like you're not even safe in your house. Gunshots come through the house. It's just sad," said Edwards.

Carmen was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition but should be OK. Her children were not injured.

No students or staff at the school were injured.

No one was in custody Thursday night.

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