Evanston Kindergartener ​Devin McGregor​ Dies After Being Shot In Head In Rogers Park

CHICAGO — The 5-year-old boy who was shot in the head during a drive-by shooting Sunday in Rogers Park has died from his injuries.

Devin McGregor, who had just started kindergarten at Willard Elementary School in Evanston, died late Thursday night at Lurie Children's Hospital.

McGregor was sitting in his parent's car in the 7600 block of Paulina Street around 5 p.m. when someone pulled up in a black Hyundai and began shooting, according to police.

The boy suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was taken to Lurie Children's Hospital in critical condition.

His father, who was thought to have been the intended target, was hit in the hand and shoulder and drove himself to St. Francis Hospital, police said.

McGregor's mother had just buckled him into his car seat at the time of the shooting, his grandfather told reporters outside the hospital earlier this week.

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“All these kids want to do is go to school and play and they can’t even do that,” Tervalon Sargent said. “Then that’s messed up. They can’t even do that and it just keeps happening. It just keeps happening. We got to do something. We got to do something. We got to do something.”

In a message to Evanston/Skokie School District 65 families on Monday, Superintendent Devon Horton encouraged parents and guardians to "reassure children that they are safe" and to keep the family in their thoughts.

At Tuesday's school board meeting, District 65 board president Sergio Hernandez led a moment of silence for McGregor and his mother, Marie.

"Unfortunately, some of the victims are just so young," Hernandez said, as McGregor fought for his life in the hospital.

"I see part of the work that we do as a school district is how do we break those types of cycles — of poverty, of violence, of, again, this historic issue that continues to plague our communities around violence," the board president said.

"Again, part of the work that we do, as equity work, is to really get to the root causes, to go beyond just test scores and the children and test scores and just data points," he added. "And really try to take a comprehensive look of how families are being engaged in our communities and given opportunities to succeed."