Person questioned after 9-month-old girl is shot, critically wounded in Chicago

By CHARLIE DE MAR

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — Police were questioning a person of interest Wednesday after a 9-month-old girl was shot and critically wounded in the Washington Park neighborhood the night before.

But as CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar reported, there was a lot that remained unknown Wednesday night about the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

Late Wednesday, there was also some confusion as to when Chicago Police were notified of the shooting.

Officers said they first received a report Wednesday morning of a shooting that happened at 10:56 p.m. Tuesday in the 0-99 block of East Garfield Boulevard – just east of State Street.

Police said the baby was shot in the head and was taken to the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition. Dispatch audio indicated that police were notified Wednesday that the baby had been brought in by her mother the night before.

Details of the shooting are scarce. Police radio traffic suggests the shooting happened inside a car in a McDonald’s parking lot.

“We just got more information that they left the baby in the car while they went inside the McDonald’s, and when they came back, the baby was shot in the head,” a police dispatcher is heard saying on dispatch radio.

Community activist Andrew Holmes visited the baby in the hospital.

“This baby is fighting for her life – may or may not make it,” he said.

Holmes regularly hands out gun locks in an effort to protect children from accidental shootings.

“I say it over and over again,” he said. “Drinking and driving don’t mix. Kids around guns definitely don’t mix either.”

As the 9-month-old baby girl remained hospitalized, there were also questions as to who was responsible.

“We need to find out who is going to be held accountable, because this weapon discharged and struck this baby,” Holmes said. “Every shooting should be alarming – but a 9-month-old child.”

Area 1 detectives were investigating and questioning the person of interest late Wednesday.

Staff with the hospital said they too were trying to figure out when Chicago Police were notified – adding that due to HIPAA constraints, they are unable to update this specific case.

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