1-year-old critically injured in road-rage shooting on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive

CHICAGO — A 1-year-old boy was in critical condition after being shot in the right temple while in a car traveling north on Lake Shore Drive near Grant Park on Tuesday morning, according to Chicago police.

Witnesses called police just after 11 a.m. when they heard shots fired on South Lake Shore Drive downtown, police said. A woman was seen getting out of the car with a toddler, and she and the child were taken by an unknown citizen to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The shooting was motivated by road rage, Central District Cmdr. Jake Alderden said at a news conference outside Northwestern’s emergency center. The shooter and the victims did not appear to know each other, Alderden said, but the dispute was believed to be over someone not letting another driver into their lane of traffic.

The boy was in a child safety seat in the back seat of the car, a white Lincoln, according to a police report that cited preliminary information. His grandmother was in the front passenger seat and her boyfriend was driving.

A witness told police that an SUV and the Lincoln began driving erratically and an altercation started somewhere between 35th Street and 31st Street on Lake Shore Drive, the report said.

Around Roosevelt Road, someone in the SUV began firing shots at the Lincoln, hitting it several times and hitting the boy, the report said. Another witness said the grandmother’s boyfriend returned fire.

Shots were fired for about two blocks in the northbound lanes from the 1100 block of South Lake Shore Drive to the 900 block, Alderden said. Ten 9 mm shell casings were found along those two blocks, the report said.

The child was shot in the head, and the car he was in crashed at Monroe Street, Alderden said. That’s when a good Samaritan driving a gray Tesla took the toddler and woman to the hospital, as well as a man who was in the vehicle.

The grandmother’s boyfriend was arrested at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for having a 9 mm Bersa handgun, the report said.

Detectives were investigating whether the gun was legally owned, police spokesman Tom Ahern said.

Police also did not immediately offer details on the vehicle from which the shots that struck the toddler were fired.

The child eventually was transferred from Northwestern to Lurie’s Children Hospital in critical condition, police said.

A gray Tesla sat under the overhang outside Northwestern’s emergency center Tuesday afternoon, draped in yellow police tape with officers standing beside it. Evidence technicians could be seen working on the car.

At the crash scene at Monroe and Lake Shore Drive, tourists crossed the street and stopped to take photos of the crime scene. A 60-year-old woman stood on the sidewalk next to her damaged gray SUV Lexus parked on Monroe.

The woman said she was stopped in a northbound lane of Lake Shore Drive waiting to turn left on Monroe to go to a doctor’s appointment when her SUV was suddenly struck from behind by a speeding white Lincoln. The woman asked not to be named out of concern for her safety.

After the impact, she said she saw a woman exit the Lincoln carrying a child.

“She came out of the car screaming, ‘My baby has been shot,’” the woman said.

“At first, I thought it was a prank,” she said, adding she did not hear gunshots. “I was kind of confused from the impact of the accident.”

The woman holding the child then began asking drivers for help, but the 60-year-old woman said she pulled her damaged SUV over and didn’t see the woman and child leave.

The northbound lanes of Lake Shore Drive between Roosevelt and Monroe were blocked for part of the afternoon. A tow truck eventually removed the Lincoln, which had at least one visible bullet hole in the rear passenger window. A child’s car seat could be seen inside.

The woman who drove the SUV that was struck by the car the toddler was riding in said she was headed to a hospital herself because she was feeling nauseous and felt pressure on her collarbone from the crash. But she was shocked to learn the child she had seen had been shot.

“Unbelievable,” she said. “In the broad open daylight. It was unbelievable.”

At an unrelated City Hall news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she had been told the shooting involved crossfire between two vehicles. She called it “an absurdity” that road rage would lead to gunfire that critically injured someone so young.

“Obviously, anytime anyone is shot in Chicago it’s tragic, particularly when it’s a child,” Lightfoot said. “It’s mind-boggling to me that people carry guns in the way that they do; that they use them in the way that they do; and they use them in that way when children are in the immediate proximity.”

The shooting came the same day Vice President Kamala Harris was in Chicago to discuss vaccine distribution equity.

Ja’Mal Green, a community activist, said at a news conference that he had spoken to Chicago police about the shooting and decided to put up $5,000 of his own money as a reward to anyone with information that would lead to an arrest. Those with tips should contact Chicago police, he said.

“I am saddened, but more than anything, I am angry,” he said. “We have an epidemic in this city that has been going on for several years with violence.”

Green said he was making a call to community members, activists, the mayor and Harris.

“I understand how important it is to vaccinate people and talk about this COVID pandemic, but here in Chicago, folks every single day are walking around trying to dodge bullets in hopes that they can survive a nice day like today,” he said. “This should not be our reality.”

The Rev. Donovan Price, who also held a news conference Tuesday, said he had made contact with the child’s family and they are “just (in) tears.”

Price referenced how just last month a 10-year-old boy was shot in the leg on the West Side, a 4-year-old boy was shot in the face on the South Side and 11-year-old Ny’Andrea Dyer died about three weeks after being shot in the head as she sat in a parked vehicle at a West Pullman gas station.

“Where is a safe place? Is there a safe place?” Price said. “We’re running out of children.”

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(Chicago Tribune’s Rosemary Sobol, Gregory Pratt and Charles J. Johnson contributed.)