Police release person of interest after 4-year-old shot

A person of interest who was being questioned Wednesday night after a 4-year-old boy was shot in the Englewood neighborhood has been released without charges, police said.

The boy was outside with family members on a porch in the 5700 block of South Morgan about 5:40 p.m. when a vehicle drove by and someone inside opened fire, striking the boy in the back, according to Chicago Police.

His family drove him to St. Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, and he was later transferred to Comer Children’s Hospital, police said. He was listed in serious condition.

Wednesday night, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi tweeted that Englewood District officers apprehended a person of interest in connection with the shooting. As of Thursday morning, no charges were pending against that individual.

Comer Hospital staff just getting off work came out to find police cars and investigators crowding around a dark gray car with a bullet hole in the driver’s side window. They asked others standing outside what happened as police set up red tape around the car.

“Another one?” one woman said. “We were just talking about this at lunch.”

The boy is at least the fourth child 8 years old or younger to be shot on the South Side in the last eight days.

Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. John Escalante told reporters Wednesday night that a 52-year-old woman had been shot on the same porch where she lives in mid-May. Neither she nor the boy shot Wednesday are thought to have been targeted.

“Some people out there have no regard for human life,” Escalante said. “The shooter saw a porch filled with people and didn’t care who he would hit.”