Heartbreaking details shed light on the last hours of 5-year-old boy’s life at Pilsen migrant shelter

Visitors to a vigil on Wednesday left flowers and candles for Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero, a 5-year-old boy who became sick at a Pilsen migrant shelter and died Sunday. The shelter houses more than 2,300 people, more than half of them minors, and residents say conditions are unsanitary. (Emmanuel Camarillo/Sun-Times)

The family of a 5-year-old migrant boy who fell ill at an overcrowded Pilsen shelter and died were under the care of a city-funded organization in Little Village as police continue to investigate the boy’s death, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez said Thursday.

“We know that there’s, of course, nothing we can do to bring Jean Carlos back, but [it’s] our commitment to make sure there are no more cases [like his,]” Sigcho-Lopez told the Sun-Times.