CHICAGO — A 3-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the head while playing "cops and robbers" inside his home, where a police spokesman said the conditions were deplorable.
"A travesty," said Anthony Guglielmi, the Chicago Police Department's top spokesman, on Twitter.
The boy and three other children had been left home alone in a house contained a "sizable" amount of drugs, Guglielmi said. The parents were later taken into custody.
At 4:58 p.m., officers responding to a call of a person shot found the toddler in the 6200 block of South Aberdeen Street, police said. The toddler had been shot in his head in a home, police said, and the shooting appeared to have been an accident.
The toddler was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, police said, where he was in critical condition.
UPDATE: 3-year-old shot in head in critical condition, police say: https://t.co/0hJDBjPKpH pic.twitter.com/ysHV6KXFOk
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) March 16, 2017
The shooting happened while the boy and other children were playing "cops and robbers," said Guglielmi, who described the home's condition as "deplorable" and the incident "a travesty."
Guns were removed from the home, police said. The mother had a state firearms owner identification card "and appeared to legally own a .40-caliber handgun that police found in an unlocked lock box in the home," the Tribune reported.
Community activist Andrew Holmes was at the hospital and told Fox32, "At this point the health of the child is the concern right about now, then tracing where that gun came from, who brought that gun into the house and who had that gun."
The shooting comes a little more than a month after 2-year-old Lavontay White, 11-year-old Takiya Holmes and 12-year-old Kanari Gentry were killed in separate shootings. The children were killed within days of each other.
Chicago saw more children shot in 2016 than it had in previous years. Even for those who survive, the city's violence can have a lasting impact, experts say. Children who have suffered trauma like a shooting are more likely to have physical and mental health issues later in life. They even may experience developmental problems because they live in constant "fight or flight" mode.
At the same time, organizations that help traumatized children have seen their resources cut.
