A 15-year-old boy was shot in the thigh early Sunday while walking with friends on a sidewalk in the 5400 block of West Fulton Street in Austin, according to Chicago police. The shooting happened at about 12:53 a.m. after a man approached the boy with a gun and opened fire following an argument, police said.
The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and is expected to be OK, according to ABC7 Chicago, which first reported the shooting. No further details on the circumstances of the argument or the man who opened fire were immediately available.
The 5400 block of West Fulton Street has seen violence before. A woman, 48, was killed and two other people were wounded in a shooting around 11 p.m. in that same block in August, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. A separate shooting in the neighboring 4800 block of West Fulton Street left four people wounded on a Monday night in May, the newspaper also reported.
A Pattern of West Side Violence
Sunday's shooting adds to a string of recent incidents across Chicago's West Side. A man was killed and two others were injured in North Lawndale on Halloween night after two gunmen reportedly fled the scene, the Chicago Tribune reported. CBS Chicago reported that at least two people were killed and five others were wounded in weekend shootings across the city as of Saturday, with victims ranging in age from 15 to 46, according to CBS Chicago.
A separate West Side shooting described by WGN-TV also involved a 15-year-old boy, who was shot in the left thigh while walking on a sidewalk when an unknown suspect opened fire. That boy was transported in serious condition, and no one was in custody, per the station's report. It is not clear whether that incident is connected to Sunday's shooting in Austin.
Austin has also seen arrests tied to argument-fueled gunfire. Hoodline previously reported that a 19-year-old man faced attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm charges after an argument in a South Austin confrontation turned violent.
Gun Violence Down, But Shootings Still Deadlier
The shooting comes amid a broader decline in Chicago gun violence. The city recorded 168 fewer homicide victims in 2025 than in 2024, a 30% reduction, through December 12, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. More than 85% of police districts saw a decrease in gunshot victimizations compared with the prior year, the Crime Lab found, and the seven community areas with the steepest declines accounted for 35% of the citywide drop.
Despite fewer shootings overall, the odds of surviving one have not necessarily improved. The Crime Lab's analysis described the shooting lethality rate in 2025 as close to its peak level, at 18.5% through December 12. The Trace has reported that the share of Chicago shooting victims who died rose from 13% in 2010 to 19% in 2023, citing experts examining why gun violence in the city has grown deadlier even as shooting counts fall.
