3-year-old boy shot in head in Englewood

A 3-year-old boy was shot in the head Thursday afternoon in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.

The shooting, which appeared to be accidental, happened just before 5 p.m. in a home in the 6200 block of South Aberdeen in the Englewood neighborhood, according to Chicago Police and Fire Media Affairs.

The boy was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, authorities said.

Activist Andrew Holmes said the boy was still in surgery late Thursday night.

Chicago police said the 3-year-old boy was the youngest of at least four children left home unsupervised in an apartment without heat or hot water.

The other children police found with the 3-year-old were age 11 or younger.

Police said the child’s mother, who hasn’t been identified, had a Firearm Owner Identification Card. Authorities say she owned a .40 caliber handgun that was found in an unlocked lock box. A spent shell casing found next to the boy matches the caliber of the weapon recovered.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a tweet Thursday night that the boy was left alone with other children in “deplorable conditions,” and they were playing cops and robbers when the shooting happened.

A large amount of drugs were found in the home, Guglielmi said. The parents were in police custody Thursday night.

No charges have been announced in the case.

The shooting comes just over a month after 2-year-old Lavontay White was killed in a shooting on Feb. 14 in North Lawndale.

Contributing: Associated Press