The driver in a shooting that killed 10-year-old Lena Nunez in Logan Square has been charged with first-degree murder and nine counts of attempted murder, Chicago police announced Wednesday.
Christopher Lara, 19, of Streamwood, was driving the night of June 27 when he pulled over and let out a gunman who began firing at a group of men standing at the mouth of a garage about three-quarters of a block away, Deputy Chief Brendan Deenihan said at a news conference.
A stray bullet went through the second-floor window of the home in the 3500 block of West Dickens Avenue and struck Lena, who was watching television with her brother that night at their grandmother’s apartment.
Within hours, Lena was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.
Deenihan said a gunman was targeting a group of men who included Lena’s father.
Christopher Lara
Chicago police mugshot
“They were spraying bullets everywhere,” according to Deenihan, who said tips from the community helped police track the suspect’s vehicle.
“For this particular case, there were no eye witnesses,” he said, adding that neighbors supplied surveillance video that helped detectives identify a suspected vehicle and its alleged driver.
After the shooting, hundreds of mourners gathered outside Lena’s family’s apartment.
The suspected shooter is still at large.
Lena is among a growing number of young children who recently have been victimized by Chicago’s summer gun violence. Fifteen children — five of them 10 years old or younger — have been shot to death in the city since June 20, according to the Chicago Sun-Times’ records.
Lara is expected in court Thursday.
