A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot while hanging out with friends at Warren Park on the North Side Tuesday, Chicago police said.
Just before 2 p.m., Anthony Mendoza was with two friends near the southeast corner of the park, 6601 N. Western Ave., when a person approached and fired at Mendoza, striking him in the upper right chest, according to a Chicago police report.
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The friends told police they heard gunshots and ran, according to the police report. When they looked back, they saw the teen face down on the ground unresponsive, the report said.
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The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled Mendoza’s death a homicide from a gunshot wound to the chest. He was pronounced dead at 2:43 p.m. at Ascension St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.
In an online statement, Ald. Debra L. Silverstein of the 50th Ward, where the shooting happened, said: “I grieve for the victim and for all of the youth who get caught in our city’s cycle of gun violence.”
She said the community’s safety is a priority for her and she is working with police.
“I am very disturbed and angry by the brazenness of this shooting — that it would happen in the middle of the day in one of our neighborhood parks,” her statement said. “There is currently no danger to the general public.”
Police are working to find video of the scene and continue to investigate. As of Thursday afternoon, no one has been arrested in connection to the shooting, said Rocco Alioto, a police spokesperson.
