Five-year-old Devin McGregor had just visited his father in Rogers Park and was headed back home with his mother Sunday evening, excited to start his first full week of kindergarten.
His mother had just buckled the boy into his car seat when a black sedan pulled up and shots were fired. Devin was hit in the head and his father was shot in the shoulder and hand, according to Chicago police.
“They were saying goodbye. They were going home so he can get ready to go to school,” the boy’s grandfather, Tervalon Sargent, told reporters. “They went to go see his father and somebody pulled up and started shooting.
“My daughter tried to pull out,” he said. “She looked in her rearview mirror and that’s when she looked back and she saw my grandson shot, trying to breathe. She took him out of the seat and put him in the seat with her and then drove him to the hospital.”
Sargent shook his head as he spoke outside Lurie Children’s Hospital, where his grandson was listed in critical condition.
“A baby. Kindergarten,” Sargent said. “Not even first grade. Kindergarten. You know how excited these kids need to go to kindergarten? And now he has to go through this.”
The boy’s father, 25, was listed in good condition at St. Francis Hospital.
The shooting happened around 5 p.m. in the 7600 block of North Paulina Street in the 24th police district, where shootings are up 10% from a year ago, according to police data.
Devin is the third young child shot in Chicago in the last week. On Aug. 20, a 6-year-old girl was shot in the arm while at a birthday party in West Englewood. Two days later, a half-mile away, a 7-year-old was shot along with his mother and her boyfriend in a drive-by shooting.
Chicago police have reported no arrests in the latest shooting or the other attacks.
Supt. David Brown told reporters Monday morning that investigators suspect the boy’s father was the intended target but he gave no motive for the attack and reported no leads.
Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said “we definitely need some assistance” from the public and asked anyone with information to come forward.
Devin’s grandfather said his grandson had just started kindergarten at Willard Elementary School in Evanston.
“He didn’t do nothing to nobody!” Sargent said. “My grandbaby is in there fighting for his life. He’s a fighter. He’s fighting for his life.
“You see it all the time but it never hits until it happens to your family and now I’m a part of another family because I’m a part of the families that this has happened to and it’s the worst feeling ever.
“All these kids want to do is go to school and play and they can’t even do that,” Sargent said. “Then that’s messed up. They can’t even do that and it just keeps happening. It just keeps happening. We got to do something. We got to do something. We got to do something.”
