Monica Mendez was watching over her 22-month-old toddler as he kicked a soccer ball at a Catholic confirmation party last weekend in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
Just as her family was about to cut the cake, she heard gunfire from the end of the block.
“I was behind him making sure he didn’t go in the street,” she said of her son Aaron. “Next thing I heard what sounded like fireworks. I didn’t know. I heard the shooting. I grabbed Aaron and ran.”
Her next thought was of Isaiah, her 7-year-old son.
“I didn’t see him and was panicking,” she said. In the chaos, she tripped on top of her younger son.
They eventually made it inside the house in the 2000 block of West 52nd Street where the party was being held. Mendez then realized Aaron had been shot through his back, and the bullet tore through the toddler’s abdomen on its way out, she said.
Her older son, Isaiah, ran inside too. She examined him and found a bullet hole in his back, she said.
Her young sons are still in the hospital from the gunshot wounds they suffered at a mass shooting in Back of the Yards last Saturday that wounded a total of 10 people and killed 9-year-old Ariana Molina. Doctors are weighing if the two Mendez boys need additional surgeries, their mother said Friday.
“I’m devastated to think I could have lost both of my kids that night,” Mendez told the Sun-Times.
Surveillance video shared with ABC7-Chicago shows three gunmen open fire from behind a building at the end of the block, several hundred feet from where family had gathered.
In addition to the two Mendez boys, another child and seven adults were wounded in the attack that unfolded around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Police collected 75 shell casings from assault rifles and handguns. Police said the shooters likely had gang connections. No arrests have been announced.
Aaron suffered kidney damage and may have to have a kidney removed, Mendez said. Doctors still haven’t decided if it’s needed.
“He’s usually a really active baby. But now, since he can’t move, he cries a lot. He seems really scared. He just wants me” nearby, she said.
Isaiah suffered damage to his rectum, his mother said. He underwent emergency surgery for an infection and had a colostomy bag inserted, she said. He’ll need another surgery to have it removed.
It’s still unclear when the boys will be healthy enough to be discharged. “I’ve asked many times. It depends on how fast they recover,” she said.
The mother of Ariana Molina, the 9-year-old who was killed, was shot and discharged from a hospital on Wednesday, Mendez said.
Since the shooting, family, neighbors and community members have held a vigil for the slain girl and police opened an assistance center to connect residents with resources.
Mendez said she will remain at the children’s hospital with her injured sons until they recover.
“I’m just drained. I keep going to be strong for them. I thank God they’re still here with me. I know they’re hurting.”
Seven-year-old Isaiah hasn’t talked much since the shooting, Mendez said. He has been sedated since he underwent surgery.
“Before the surgery, I talked with him,” she said. “He just told me he never wants to go back to that party.”
