7-Year-Old Accidentally Shoots, Injures 11-Year-Old Brother

It happened in Chicago; 5 other kids injured in separate Windy City shootings on the same night
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 15, 2020 10:30 AM CST
7-Year-Old Accidentally Shoots, Injures 11-Year-Old Brother
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/MattGush)

Two siblings in Chicago got their hands on a gun Friday, and now one of them is hospitalized. Police say an 11-year-old boy and his 7-year-old sister "gained access" to a firearm in the Lawndale home, and the girl was handling the gun when it appears to have accidentally gone off around 8pm, per FOX 32 and WLS. The boy was shot in the neck. Two police cars happened to be outside the apartment building when the shooting took place. The boy was taken to a local hospital in serious to critical condition, per police. It's not clear if anyone else was in the home at the time of the shooting. Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune and WGN report on two other shootings in the Windy City Friday that left five more children injured.

In the second incident, three young teens were wounded after shots rang out shortly after 9pm when a Valentine's Day celebration spilled out into the hallway of a South Side apartment building. A 15-year-old girl was shot in the leg and foot and was said to be in good condition at a local hospital. Two 14-year-old girls were also shot and hospitalized—one in the leg, and the other in the leg, back, shoulder, and backside. The former is said to be in good condition, the latter in critical condition. It's not clear yet who did the shooting. Meanwhile, a third shooting a couple of hours later in the Bronzeville neighborhood left an 8-year-old boy shot in the shoulder and a 12-year-old girl with a graze wound to her arm. Both children, said by police to have been accidentally shot by a juvenile male relative, are reported in fair condition. (More shooting stories.)

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