AUSTIN — A 7-year-old boy was shot in the back Wednesday night while sitting in a car with his mother, but he survived after she drove to a nearby hospital.
The boy, identified by his family as Davion Lewis, was in serious condition after being transferred from West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park to Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, police said.
Around 10 p.m., Lewis was sitting in the back seat of his mother's car parked in the 1000 block of North Leamington Avenue when a bullet pierced the car and hit him, according to Officer Jose Estrada, a Chicago Police spokesman.
Lewis's grandmother, Stephanie Lewis, said the boy's parents were picking him up from her house when two men ran out of an alley and fired "what must have been 10 or 12" shots.
"It happened so fast, I didn't even know what to think," Stephanie Lewis said. "I just lay behind a car and stayed there until the shooting stopped."
By that time, she said, her daughter had sped off with Davion.
The block had been "pretty quiet" recently, Stephanie Lewis said, but gang activity sometimes spills into areas where shootings are less common.
"If they're going to do this shooting, I just wish they'd keep it to where the fighting's going on, and not put families in the middle of it," she said. "You got these kids cutting each other down before they even get to understand what life is. They don't care who they're shooting at."
Davion, who Stephanie Lewis said was "doing OK" at Lurie, is "smart, outgoing, friendly" and "likes to joke." He attends nearby Leslie Lewis Elementary School.
No one is in custody for the shooting, Estrada said.
"I got no idea who did this, but I hope they track them down quick," Stephanie Lewis said. "I wanna know how they felt when they learned they shot a little boy."
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