Chicago police have identified a 9-year-old boy that was shot and killed in a parking lot on the city’s Near North Side Friday evening.
According to police, the boy, identified as 9-year-old Janari Andre Ricks, was in a parking lot in the 900 block of North Cambridge at approximately 6:45 p.m. when a person approached on foot and began firing shots. Ricks was hit in the chest and was taken to Lurie Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police say Ricks likely wasn’t the intended target of the shooting, and an investigation remains ongoing, with no suspects in custody.
On Saturday morning, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot posted a statement to social media, saying that city residents should be “outraged” that an act of violence has claimed the life of another child.
“When a 9-year-old’s life is ended by a bullet, we must all be outraged,” she said. “These deaths are not mere statistics, and prayers alone will not soothe a broken heart. How many more families must be torn apart? How many more communities need to be traumatized? How many more children have to die? We’ve had to write these words far too many times just this summer alone.”
