‘I tried my best to save my baby’ — mom of baby killed in stroller by fleeing car on South Side

A baby boy being pushed in a stroller died Saturday afternoon when he was run down by a vehicle fleeing a deadly gang shooting in Woodlawn, the police said.

Dillan Harris had celebrated his first birthday May 21.

“I tried to save my baby,” his mother said later Saturday as she gathered with grieving relatives on the South Side.

She said she’d been standing, waiting at a bus stop at 63rd and Ellis, about a block from her home, a little before 2 p.m. Saturday with her three kids — Dillan and his two older sisters. On a warm day, they were headed for a family outing to the 63rd Street Beach.

That’s when a westbound car, which the Chicago Police Department said was fleeing a shooting in the 7700 block of South Kingston that claimed the life of a 22-year-old man, raced up.

“All of a sudden, they swerved and hit a pole and hit my baby,” said the mother, who declined to give her name.

She said she tried to push all of her kids out of the way but didn’t have enough time to get Dillan clear of the danger.

“It happened in the blink of an eye,” she said. “When I looked up, they were just there. I tried my best to save my baby.”

When she saw the stroller had been hit, she said, “I knew he was gone,”

Dillan was taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. He was pronounced dead there.

The boy’s nickname was Dill Pickle.

“He was always smiling,” his mother said. “He was such a happy baby.”

The police were questioning two people Saturday evening in connection with both incidents.

The 22-year-old man who was shot was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died later Saturday, according to the police.

The police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office would not identify the dead man Saturday, saying they were waiting until his next of kin could be notified.