Road rage possible cause of fatal shooting of boy, 3, in SUV full of kids in West Lawn: police
A three-year-old boy who was shot in the head while traveling in a sport utility vehicle driven by his mom in the West Lawn neighborhood has died early Saturday
The attack may have stemmed from a road rage incident, police said.
About 8:40 p.m. Friday, Chicago Lawn District police officers were responding to a ShotSpotter alert of 10 rounds when the mother flagged them down in the 6600 block of South Pulaski Road and told officers she was shot at and her son was shot less than a mile away, according to police report.
A police sergeant grabbed 3-year-old Mateo Zastro, who was shot in the head, and drove him to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and the report.
The mother told police she had been involved in a road rage situation a short time before the attack, and two vehicles had been following her as she drove Mateo and three other children in an SUV along the 4400 block of West Marquette Road.
Suddenly, a gunman in the back seat of a red car opened fire, hitting Mateo, who was pronounced dead about seven hours later, at 4:13 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
Nobody else was injured, according to the fire department and police said the shooter was inside a Dodge Charger or Ford Mustang but has not been arrested.
Area One detectives are investigating.
