A 16-year-old boy was charged Thursday in connection with a shooting that injured a 7-year-old boy a day earlier in Chicago's Far South Side Morgan Park neighborhood.
The teen, whose identity was not released because of his age, was charged with one count of aggravated battery with the discharge of a firearm, a felony, according to a statement from Chicago Police.
"This was an ambush," said community activist Andrew Holmes, who responded to the 10900 block of South Loomis Street after the boy, Elijah Dace, was wounded. "The individuals that discharged the weapon were hiding on the side of the garage, came out, and just started shooting and this baby was hit."
A witness who asked to remain anonymous said she heard five gunshots. What stunned her, she said, was that the shooters -- who she described as young boys themselves -- didn't appear to be in a rush after the 3:30 p.m. incident. Instead, she said they started walking south on Loomis Street.
Dace took a bullet to his left shoulder and was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. His condition was described as "good" by late Wednesday.
Authorities said they don't believe the boy was the intended target.
