A three-month-old boy was shot in the chest in a parking lot as his parents went out to purchase more baby formula.
Jeremiah Carlos is fighting to recover after being shot in a Walgreens car park in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago on Saturday afternoon.
‘While simply out for a store run to get baby formula, this unfortunate and senseless act of violence occurred and turned our families worlds upside down,’ his family wrote in a GoFundMe page.
‘We are now facing a devastating crisis.’
The family was driving in the parking lot at 3045 W 26th Street around 4.30pm when two men got out of an older model, brown SUV, in front of them, states a police report obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
One of the suspects with a green rifle and the other with a handgun opened fire on the family’s Chevrolet Camaro, then got back into their SUV and fled on Albany Avenue, according to the report.
Jeremiah was struck in the upper chest while his 21-year-old father had gunshot wounds on his right shoulder, right arm and bullet grazes on his neck. The dad ran from the Camaro into the Walgreens.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah’s mother got into the driver’s seat and drove to the intersection of California Avenue and 24th Street, where she got out holding her son in his car seat and flagged down an ambulance.
The ambulance rushed Jeremiah to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition.
Jeremiah underwent nerve and clavical surgery on Monday and was in stable condition afterward, according to his mother.
‘He is connected to many tubes and IVS,’ states the GoFundMe page. ‘The road to recovery will be long and challenging, requiring multiple surgeries, continuous medical care, and therapy.’
Doctors predicted that Jeremiah will require medical treatment until he is a teenager due to the severity of his injuries.
The GoFundMe page to help with Jeremiah’s medical expenses had raised more than $3,300 as of Wednesday evening.
No one has been arrested in connection with the crime.
Jeremiah was shot just weeks after a two-year-old Georgia boy accidentally shot himself dead in a Walmart car park as his parents stepped out of the vehicle to purchase fireworks.
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