A 9-year-old Roseland boy was shot in the back of the head early Wednesday morning while he and his father were in the backyard of their home.
Ivan Burns, Jr. is in critical condition, clinging to his life at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
The boy had been playing video games with his father when they went to retrieve their dog from the backyard of their home at about 3:20 a.m. As the pair went into the backyard of the home, on the 0-99 block of East 100th Place, the boy suddenly dropped to the ground with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.
"Whoever did this, they took away somebody's son. They took away somebody's grandson, brother... and it's just crazy. It needs to stop," said neighbor Brenda Copeland.
Police said that they don't believe the Bennett Elementary School fourth grader was the intended target, but authorities also had no comment as to whether his father was the intended target.
Ivan Burns Sr. said he is unsure of where the shots came from.
The shooting was the second in the neighborhood this week. Martel Fields, 17, was shot and killed Monday while waiting at a bus stop at 107th Street and Wentworth Avenue. He was going to the store.
The Roseland CeaseFire organization, a group aimed at stopping neighborhood violence and making communities safer to live in, believes the shooting of Burns could be gang-related.
"There was gangfire back and forth, and we're going to be talking to Gang A and B to try to stop this and make sure there's no retaliation," said Bob Jackson, executive director of Roseland CeaseFire.
