14-year-old girl critically wounded in Back of the Yards. ‘Give our city back to our youth,’ activist pleads.Sophie Sherryon June 3, 2021 at 10:53 am

The girl was on a sidewalk in the 1700 block of West 48th Street when three people approached and one fired shots, striking her in the head, police said.

A 14-year-old girl was critically wounded in a shooting Wednesday in Back of the Yards on the South Side.

About 6 p.m., the girl was on the sidewalk in the 1700 block of West 48th Street when three people approached her and one fired shots, Chicago police said. Surveillance footage obtained by WGN-TV shows the girl walking a dog.

She was struck in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, police said.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

No one was in custody.

Community activist Andrew Holmes said the girl was in surgery around 8 p.m. Her family was at the hospital.

Holmes urged neighbors who may have cameras on their homes to give footage to the Chicago Police Department.

With shootings up 36% this year compared to 2020, Holmes put partial blame on pretrial judges who set bonds, saying the lack of consequences for gun offenders is resulting in more violence — a belief repeatedly expressed by Chicago Police Supt. David Brown.

“These streets belongs to the children, the parks belong to the children,” Holmes said Wednesday outside Comer Hospital. “Give our city back to our youth.”

Between 5 and 8 p.m. Wednesday, at least four other people were shot in Chicago, two of them fatally. Since last week Thursday, at least 10 people 18 or younger have been shot in the city.

Through the end of May, 1,386 people were shot in Chicago, a jump from 1,116 during the same time in 2020. Murders have risen 5% compared to 2020, with the department reporting 252 murders so far this year.

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