A 5-month-old baby girl was fatally shot Friday evening in South Shore, authorities said.
Cecilia Thomas, who was 5 months old, was in a car in the 7700 block of South South Shore Drive around 6:45 p.m. when a car approached them and someone inside fired shots, according to Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner’s office, and the Chicago Police Department. The baby was struck in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, police said.
The baby was pronounced dead at 7:10 p.m., Derevyanny said.
Andrew Holmes, a crisis responder, said the family is asking for community members who may have seen something to speak up, and for police to use every resource possible to find the shooter, including nearby traffic cameras.
“I did talk with the mother before the baby was pronounced and all she wanted to do was just be by her baby’s side,” Holmes said. “She was just waiting on the father to get there.”
A 41-year-old man in a separate car was also injured in Friday evening’s shooting and self-transported to U of C Hospital with a gunshot wound to the eye, police said. He was reported in good condition, police said.
The baby girl would have turned 6-months-old in four days, according to Derevyanny, making her among the youngest homicide gunshot victims in Chicago.
In June 2020, 20-month-old Sincere Gaston, was fatally shot in Englewood, also while in a car and shot by someone in a passing car.
One-month-old Terriana Smith was shot in Englewood last summer on July 1. She survived, and celebrated her first birthday last month among community members and loved ones.
