A 5-year-old boy was fatally shot Thursday night inside a home in suburban Calumet City, officials said.
About 9 p.m., emergency crews responded to a call of a child shot in the 200 block of Paxton Avenue, Calumet City Police Chief Kevin Kolosh said in a news conference Friday. Officers found the 5-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head, according to Kolosh.
The boy, identified as Kentrell Pouncey, was taken to an area hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Preliminary investigations indicate the gun was brought into the house by a family member from a different location, and Pouncey’s mother was unaware it was there, Kolosh said.
The gun was fired once from inside the home, according to Kolosh. Police were still investigating who fired the weapon. The boy’s mother, three juvenile relatives and Pouncey were in the house, according to Kolosh.
“Regardless of the circumstances concerning this tragic death, our hearts are broken as this family must now deal with the loss of this young child,” Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones said in a statement. “I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family.”
