south shore

Baby Shot in the Head in Chicago's South Shore Neighborhood Dies

No arrests have been made

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A baby died Friday evening after being shot while inside a vehicle in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, according to authorities.

At approximately 6:45 p.m. in the 7700 block of South Shore, a 5-month-old female was inside a vehicle when an unknown vehicle approached and someone inside fired shots, authorities said.

The infant, who was identified as Cecilia Thomas, was struck in the head and driven to Comer Children's Hospital where she was later pronounced dead. A second individual, a 41-year-old man, self-transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the eye. He was reported to be in good condition.

No arrests have been made, and authorities have provided no details on what led to the shooting or how it happened. Police said Saturday that they did not have any updates.

The baby is among the youngest victims of gun violence in Chicago. She would have turned 6-months-old in four days, according to Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

As of June 19, the Chicago Police Department had recorded 282 homicides so far this year, down from the 316 recorded during the same period in 2021. Like many other cities in the U.S., Chicago reported a dramatic increase in homicides last year. The 797 homicides in the nation's third-largest city in 2021 — Chicago's highest toll for any year in a quarter-century — eclipsed Los Angeles’ tally by 400 and the total in New York by nearly 300.

Crisis responder Andrew Holmes, who spoke with Cecilia's mother, expressed anger at the shooter, saying, “you shouldn't sleep at night” and urged the person to turn themselves in.

“You just took this baby’s life. This baby was an infant, this baby didn’t do nothing to you,” he said.

Activist Ja’Mal Green was offering a $5,000 reward for information about the shooting.

AP/NBC Chicago
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