A 12-year-old boy was grazed in the thigh by a bullet while playing at Starr Park in the 2200 block of West Maypole Avenue on Chicago's Near West Side, leaving him hospitalized but in good condition as investigators continue searching for answers. No one has been taken into custody.
The boy was playing in the park at 5:10 p.m. when he was struck, according to Chicago Sun-Times. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was listed in good condition, per the same report.
Police said no one was in custody following the shooting, and the investigation remains ongoing, the outlet noted. Beyond the basic circumstances of the shooting, authorities have not released further details about the incident.
A Pattern of Young Victims Across the City
The Near West Side shooting follows other recent cases of young people caught in gunfire around Chicago. A 14-year-old boy was left paralyzed after being struck by a stray bullet on the city's North Side, with a suspect later charged with attempted murder, according to ABC7 Chicago.
That case carries some conflicting details in separate ABC7 coverage: one report named the charged suspect as Muhammad Boshar, while another identified him as Muhammad Sayadul Boshar and described the boy as critically injured rather than paralyzed, per ABC7's account of the North Rockwell Street shooting in West Rogers Park.
What the City's Data Shows About Shooting Victims
Citywide figures offer some broader context, though the available data is limited in scope. According to a snippet from the City of Chicago's violence-reduction dashboard, 79% of homicide or non-fatal shooting victimizations in 2020 involved Black residents and 15% involved Latinx residents, with most victims being male or between 20 and 39 years old.
The city's violence-victimization tracking defines violent crime broadly, expanding the FBI's standard definition to include fatal and non-fatal shootings, non-shooting homicides, aggravated assaults and batteries, robberies, criminal sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking, according to the dashboard. That data, however, reflects older citywide trends rather than details specific to the Near West Side incident.
For now, the 12-year-old's shooting remains an open case. Police have not announced any arrests, and the investigation continues.
