A three-year-old boy was shot in the head and killed in the back of his mother’s car in an incident in Chicago that has horrified the local community.
Mateo Zastro was driving with his family in the white SUV on the Southwest Side Friday night when a red sedan pulled up and a gunman in the back seat opened fire.
The mother was reported to have tried to drive away after getting involved in some sort of dispute with a red sedan after leaving the mall near 44th & West Marquette Road in the West Lawn neighborhood around 8:30 p.m.
But the red car followed her and brazenly shot into the family’s vehicle, hitting Mateo in the head. He was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center but died eight hours later.
“The mother attempted to exit the other vehicles as the offender subsequently followed her,” said 8th District Commander Bryan Spreyne. ‘Several shots were fired.’
Mateo is the second child to be shot in the head while sitting in a vehicle in Chicago in less than a month as Mayor Lori Lightfoot struggles to address the city’s rising homicide rate.
The Windy City ranks seventh in America for murders, according to the New York Times.
Mateo Zastro, 3, was riding with his family in the back of the white SUV when a gunman shot him in the back of the head
The white SUV carrying a family of four was ejected in a road rage incident after leaving the mall near 44th & West Marquette Road in the West Lawn neighborhood around 8:30 p.m. Friday.
Mateo was in the car with his mother and three siblings when another car allegedly got into an accident with them and decided to open fire
The suspects were believed to be driving a red Ford Mustang, but other reports said it could be a Dodge Charger.
‘I would like to offer our deepest and most profound condolences to the family of this precious 3-year-old child. Our hearts are broken by the senseless act of violence that took this child’s life.’
“We will not rest until those responsible for this senseless and cowardly act of violence are brought to justice,” he added.
The mother and her three other children in the car were left unharmed by the brutal attack. According to police radio broadcasts, she allegedly drove away from the shooting and refused officers for help.
“That mother is still grieving over it,” said community advocate Andrew Holmes. “All she does is hold on to two dinosaurs, and these were the baby’s favorite toys, the dinosaurs.”
‘This is the second child this year to be shot in the head in a vehicle. We have baby killers out here on the streets,” Holmes said.
The mother was too distraught to speak to the media.
Community lawyer Andrew Holmes has offered a $7,000 reward for information about the killers, lamenting that ‘We have baby killers out here on the streets’
Doorbell footage appeared to capture something of the incident, which has left the community devastated
“I just panicked and hit the ground,” Roger Ramirez said CBS Newslives a few doors down from where the shooting happened and had a bullet go through his window.
“It came straight through my window and when I closed the blinds that’s when I heard the impact and I just panicked,” he said.
“It’s just so sad to see it escalate to that and kill that little boy,” Ramirez said. ‘I moved here recently because I thought it was a safe neighborhood.’
The city’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection system indicated that 10 high-capacity shots were fired near this residential Southwest Side intersection, according to Chicago Sun Times.
Holmes has offered a $7,000 reward to anyone with information or tips leading to an arrest and conviction in the tragic case.
They estimate that 284 youths have been shot in Chicago already this year, 43 of them 17 or younger fatally.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has struggled to get crime under control during her tenure, with overall crime up 37 percent over last year
There have been 33 shooting victims aged 12 or under, and six of them were killed.
The youngest, 5-month-old Cecilia Thomas, was traveling in a car with her father when she was shot in the head in South Shore in June.
The homicide rate for Chicago has diverged significantly from comparable US cities Los Angeles and New York over the past few years, according to police statistics.
After being roughly comparable for most of the second half of the twentieth century, Chicago’s homicide rate per 100,000 to shoot into a league of its own.
Windy City sees 18.4 murders per 100,000 of population compared to 7.5 for LA and 3.6 for New York.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was sworn into office in May 2019, has promised to tackle the city’s crime rate, but so far without much success.
The 2022 homicide rate stands at 545, just 120 behind 2021’s record homicide of 645 with three months left in the year.
Before Lightfoot became mayor, the homicide rate had been declining for four consecutive years.