8-year-old Mount Prospect shooting victim talks about his ordeal

When the shooting started that Friday night, the kids were in the back yard playing football; 8-year-old Ader Torres, his two sisters and friends from their Mount Prospect neighborhood.

The shots came from behind their apartment building on Boxwood Drive, on the other side of the fence that separates the apartments from the construction on the Randhurst property.

A stray bullet grazed Ader's face, embedding itself in his left cheek.

At first, Ader said, he felt nothing, but then his ear started throbbing. He put his hand on his cheek and realized he was bleeding.

Ader's mother, Rosario Solis, was in the living room waiting for a Spanish telenovela to come on at 8 p.m. She heard the shots and bolted from the sofa, panicked over her three children, Ader, 8, Daniela, 5, and Marylin, 2, and the neighborhood kids who were in her yard.

"It was five shots, I think," Solis said.

"I ran to the kitchen, and I was about to run outside when Ader came running in all bloody, saying he had been shot," she said. "I started screaming that my kid had been shot, and for my sister to call an ambulance."

Ader, who has been recovering at home since being released from the hospital after the April 2 shooting, said it was pretty scary.

"I was afraid and then my mom was crying," he said.

Ader was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Lutheran Hospital in Park Ridge, and later transferred to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago before being released last week.

Solis said doctors are still debating whether they should operate to remove the bullet lodged in his cheek.

"They told us they decided to leave the bullet there, and that he is fine," Solis said. "They will take it out only if it starts hurting."

Rosario Solis and husband Ader Torres Sr., originally from Mexico, have lived in their apartment on the 1100 block of Boxwood Drive since 1988. The walls of their home are lined with wedding pictures, kids' photos and images of the Virgin Mary. Both work at the Molon Motor and Coil factory in Arlington Heights.

Police say while the Boxwood area generates a lot of 911 calls, drive-by shootings are not normally among them. They said this is the first time a child has been injured in a shooting anywhere in town.

Authorities could not definitively say whether the shooting was related to gang activity, though some neighbors suspect it.

"The boy wasn't the intended target," said Mark Bechtold, crime prevention officer with the Mount Prospect Police Department. "We're still just sorting through all our witness accounts."

While there have been problems with crime in that neighborhood, the number of 911 calls from the area has decreased.

"The community really has gotten better over the past few years," Bechtold said. "We've always had strong police presence in that neighborhood and have a really good rapport with the homeowners and landlords."

Rumors abound that a young man from the neighborhood who was walking along the road behind Ader's back yard that night was the intended target.

Ader said just before being shot he saw a few "big guys" fighting by the fence that separates the rear of his apartment complex from the road running behind the construction area abutting Costco and Home Depot. There was a car on the other side of the fence, he said.

"Someone said, 'Give me the gun, give me the gun,'" Ader said. "And then they shoot me."

Ader said it was lucky that no other children were hurt, including his sisters.

Several bullet holes are in the rear wall of Ader's home, the ground near the patio area, and the fence - highlighted by police in orange color.

Police said witnesses reported three to five shots were fired that night. Police are unsure whether the shots came from the road and construction area behind the mall or from the road and parking lot immediately behind the apartments.

"At this point we don't have a consensus as to what happened," Bechtold said.

In response, the police department will educate neighborhood residents and parents of nearby Euclid Elementary School about gang awareness and calling 911 at the first sign of trouble, Bechtold said.

"It's always an uphill battle getting people to understand that 911 is the best thing for getting quick responses," he said. "We are able to communicate with any and all languages, over 200 languages."

Ader, a second-grader at Euclid, said he misses school and his classmates. He will likely stay home for two weeks until doctors determine what to do with the bullet in his cheek.

Ader said many of his friends from the neighborhood and one classmate have visited him since his release from the hospital.

Miriam Cutler, assistant superintendent of special services for River Trails Elementary District 26, said Ader is well-liked, and last week the school district offered social work support to students. A resource officer with the Mount Prospect Police Department also talked to students, Cutler said.

Mount Prospect police helped establish a fund for donations to help pay Ader's medical bills. Donations can be made payable to Rosario Solis and mailed to: Mount Prospect State Bank, Attn: Linda Larson, 20 E. Northwest Hwy., Mount Prospect, IL 60056. Contact Linda Larson at (847) 832-0950 with any questions.

"It's not something that we do on a regular basis," Bechtold said. "This is just a unique circumstance where the public really wanted to know how to help."

Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call police department's investigative unit at (847) 870-5654. Anonymous tips may be left at (847) 870-5649.

Ader is back to his usual activities such as watching TV, playing with toy cars and reading books like "The Diary of a Wimpy Kid."

Although Ader is in good spirits, Solis, who is pregnant with her fourth child, is still reeling from the ordeal.

"I'm scared to let them play outside now, even though they keep asking to go outside," Solis said. "I've been telling them it's too cold, but eventually I'll have to let them go."