13-year-old boy shot, killed at West Ridge park had 'bright future,' mother says

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A 13-year-old boy was shot and killed at a North Side park on Friday night, Chicago officials said.

The boy has been identified as Lavell Winslow, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

"He was a bright young man, bright future," Lavell's mother, Vanessa Winslow, said.

He was the youngest of her five children.

She said her son was at Lerner Park with some friends when he was shot in the head.

The shooting happened before 10 p.m. at Lerner Park in the West Ridge neighborhood's 7000 block of North Sacramento Avenue, police said.

An off-duty police officer heard the shot and saw several teens running from the park.

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Police found the boy on a park bench with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to the St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, but he later died.

"He wasn't a bad child, not in a gang. He was just hanging with the wrong crowd," Vanessa said.

Lavell's mother said he was an A/B student at West Ridge Elementary School.

The 8th-grader has recently moved into an advanced math class and eventually wanted to have a career in computers after graduating high school.

"He had great potentials. He had a bright future," Vaness said.

Police are searching for the gunman and there's no word on any arrests.

According to ABC7 data, Lavell is one of three children killed and 12 children shot so far this month.

Parents who've lost children to gun violence participated in the "Save the Children Conference" Saturday to bring attention to what they call an epidemic in Chicago.

Organizers said the goal of the event was to come up with practical solutions to bring an end to the senseless killings.

Organizers of the "Save the Children Conference" said the goal is to come up with practical solutions to bring an end to the senseless killings.