7-year-old boy killed by gunfire on Near West Side in apparent random shooting ID'd
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A 7-year-old boy was killed in a shooting on Chicago's Near West Side Tuesday afternoon, Chicago police said.
CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling said officers responded to a call for shots fired at the Oakley Square Apartments, a gated complex, in the 2300-block of West Jackson Boulevard around 3 p.m. When they got there, they found the boy with a gunshot wound to the chest.
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The boy had been leaving their residence, going to visit a neighbor, when shots were fired from a distance and an apparent stray bullet struck him, Snelling said.
Snelling said the officers immediately applied pressure to the wound to try to slow the bleeding and rushed him to Stroger Hospital in the back of their squad car. Despite their life-saving measures, the boy died at the hospital.
He was identified by the Cook County medical examiner as Jaimaniamir Rivera.
WATCH: Update from CPD Supt. Larry Snelling, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson
"It is unbearable and unacceptable for everyone in our city," Snelling said.
Family members overcome with grief and anguish gathered outside the hospital, joined by more and more loved ones by the minute.
Snelling said it appears the shooting was random, and he does not believe Rivera was the intended target. He said detectives are canvassing the neighborhood, looking for evidence or for any video that may have captured the shooting.
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The Rivera's age was initially reported to be 4, but Snelling clarified he was 7 years old.
Neighbors at the scene said he was outside playing at the time of the shooting, and said they're outraged.
"This is crazy. I mean, whoever did the shooting, you know you all just took somebody's child, 7-year-old that didn't even have anything to do with whatever's going on over here," said neighbor Ethiopia Jackson.
Over 70 were shot, nine fatally, from Friday to Monday in Chicago. Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the violence for the first time Tuesday.
"The grief in this city has become increasingly more unbearable. The ungodly behavior and the acts of violence that have plagued our city for so long have reached a breaking point in this city," he said.
Snelling decried the violence in Chicago this past weekend and overall, saying that while overall numbers are down, any person shot is unacceptable.
"We really have to think about who we are as a society when our kids are being shot in the street," said Snelling. "We will not rest until we bring some justice to this case. And it's not just this case. We're seeing this happen all too often to our children. Although the numbers are down from last year, any person shot is unacceptable. Even if it's one, it's too many. We really have to think about what we're doing."
Snelling said so far in 2024, 127 juveniles have been victims of gun violence and 17 have been killed.
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