12-Year-Old Boy Shot for Refusing to Show Gang Signs

CHICAGO, IL — A 12-year-old Chicago boy was shot in the chest in Chicago’s Gage Park community as he played tag with friends on the sidewalk.

The boy was shot because he refused to throw gang signs, ABC 7 Chicago reported on Friday.

He was shot at about 9 p.m. Thursday in the 3000 block of W. 54th Street in front of a house where the father of one of his friends lives. No one is in custody.

Witnesses said the neighborhood has suffered from a gang problem. ABC 7 Chicago is reporting the boy was standing on the sidewalk in front of a home when someone driving a red SUV stopped.

“They’re kids,” the passenger shouted as he jumped out of the SUV.

But the driver already had fired two shots.

The boy is in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Hospital, according to the Chicago Fire Department. Family members told reporters the boy will survive.

The boy’s birthday is next month his sister told Sam Charles, reporting for the Chicago Sun-Times from Mt. Sinai Hospital.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

Community activist Andrew Holmes said the boy was playing with other children, some younger than him, when the shots were fired. “Talking to some of the neighbors, they said there was a good amount of kids out there,” he said.

“When the weather changes, they want to be outside,” he added while standing outside the hospital. “But it’s a safety risk right now. You know, look just what happened and the weather is about to change over the weekend.”

More than 400 people have been shot in Chicago in the last seven weeks. A 15-year-old girl was shot in the same neighborhood earlier this week.