Man in custody in Streamwood shooting

Police have a person of interest in custody in connection with Sunday night's shooting of a 17-year-old in Streamwood.

Deputy Police Chief Jim Gremo confirmed his department was questioning a suspect about the shooting Thursday. The suspect hadn't been charged.

Yolanda Outlaw, the mother of the shooting victim, Jess T. Outlaw, said her son's spine was struck by a bullet and he's paralyzed, but that doctors told her he should be able to walk again.

She said her son suffered two gunshot wounds but is conscious and talking. He provided the name of the person be believes attacked him to police, his mother said.

"He's holding up," she said. "With God's help, it will happen: He'll walk again."

Police have said that before 11 p.m. on the 900 block of Miller Road, someone wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a mask similar to the killer in the "Scream" movies rode up on a bicycle to the victim, who was also on a bike, and fired a chrome revolver.

Yolanda Outlaw said the person she believes shot her son had been taunting people on his bicycle along that block earlier that day. She said her son and his friends had been racing their bicycles, and that the shooter removed his mask before he fired his gun.

"He meant to kill him," Yolanda Outlaw said. "Why would he show him his face just before he pulled over?"

The victim, who turns 18 Monday, is a senior at Streamwood High School.

His mother said he can move his arms and his memory's intact, but doctors don't know how long it will be until he plays basketball, a favorite activity, or walk again.

Yolanda Outlaw said her son knew the shooter from Tefft Middle School, but only as an acquaintance.

"My son didn't deserve this. He's a sweet kid," she said. "He didn't do anything wrong for somebody to do this to him."

Her son also broke his arm after falling to the ground and suffered a collapsed lung.

"When I found him lying on the ground, I told him, 'Just ... keep fighting. You're going to make it,'" his mother said.

Doctors at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge took Jess Outlaw out of intensive care Wednesday.

Yolanda Outlaw said her family has lived in the same Streamwood home for 17 years, but that she's seen her neighborhood change and violent crime has increased.

She said she was set to move her family out of state to get away from the crime, and said police need to do more to help get the neighborhood under control. She said violent crime is a problem in neighboring Hanover Park and believes it's spilling into her community, too.