1-year-old boy killed, mom wounded in Chicago shooting

CHICAGO (AP) - A 1-year-old boy died Saturday in a shooting that also wounded his mother while she was driving in Chicago with the child in the back seat of the car.

The 22-year-old mother was driving home with her 20-month-old child from a laundromat after 2 p.m. Saturday when the shooting happened in the city's Englewood neighborhood, Chicago Police Chief Fred Waller said during a press briefing.

The shooter, in another car, pulled up next to the pair and opened fire at the car seven or eight times, according to Waller.

The mother rushed herself and her son to a nearby hospital, where the boy was pronounced dead after being shot once in the chest while he was in the back seat of the car. The mother was grazed in the head.

'œToo many times children are killed," Waller told reporters. 'œWhen is this going to stop? I don't even have the words ... to see that family at (the hospital)."

Waller said the motive is unclear and that detectives are working 'œfeverishly" to solve the case.

'œWhen are we going to say enough is enough? ... no doubt we'll catch the person who did it. ... but it's not going to bring the kid back."

Earlier this month over Father's Day weekend, 14 people, including five children, were killed and more than 100 people were shot in a wave of gunfire in Chicago. That marked the city's highest number of shooting victims in a single weekend this year.

Among the victims who died over Father's Day weekend was 3-year-old Mekhi James, who police said was fatally shot as the boy was in a car with his father in the city's south Austin neighborhood. Police said the child's 27-year-old father was the intended target when someone fired shots at the car. Community leaders are offering a $10,000 reward for any information in the boy's killing.