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13 People, Including a 3-Year-Old, Shot in a Chicago Park

Thirteen people, including a 3-year-old child, were shot on Chicago's South Side late Thursday night. Click here for the latest.

By Brian Feldman
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Thirteen people, including a 3-year-old child, were shot near the basketball courts of Chicago's Cornell Square Park park late Thursday night, the Chicago Tribune reports. There were no immediate fatalities, and all of the victims were transported to local hospitals. From the Tribune:

Three of the victims, including the child, were taken to local hospitals in serious-to-critical condition, according to the Fire Department's news office. Four were in fair-to-serious condition, and four were in good-to-fair condition, according to the Fire Department.

The 3-year-old was reportedly shot in the cheek, according to a family member, but is expected to live.

Police are keeping quiet about the circumstances of the shooting, only to say that the victims were all shot in the same location around 10:15 p.m., and that the shooting appears to be gang-related.

According to some witnesses, gunman began firing from a grey sedan, while other said they got out of the vehicle and started firing into the park. “They’ve been coming round here looking for people to shoot every night — just gang-banging stuff. It’s what they do.” One of the witnesses, an uncle of the three-year-old, told The Chicago Sun-Times “They’ve been coming round here looking for people to shoot every night — just gang-banging stuff. It’s what they do.”

The other victims ranged in age from 15 to 41, and most remained in the hospital in good or stable condition.

Chicago, of course, has been plagued by gun violence in the last several years, and was just this week named the "murder capital" of the United States. There were 500 murders in the city last year, most of them killed in shootings, surpassing the total of even New York and Los Angeles, which have greater populations. (On per capita basis, however, some cities like Flint and Detroit are still more dangerous.)

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.