A 5-year-old Illinois boy was fatally shot in a Calumet City home on Thursday night, according to city officials.
Calumet City police and fire officials responded to a home in the 200-block of Paxton Avenue about 9 p.m. for a report of a child who had been shot, officials said.
When police arrived, they found a 5-year-old with a gunshot wound to the head and immediately began life-saving measures, officials said.
The 5-year-old boy was shot and killed while home with his mom and three siblings, police said.
The child was taken to Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak lawn, where he died just before 10:15 p.m., according to officials.
Preliminary investigation shows a gun went off in the home once, but it was not immediately clear how the child was wounded, officials said.
“I was sitting here in the living room,” neighbor Mae Davis said. “I was watching television and then I heard the boom, just like a shot.”
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the boy as Kentrell Pouncey. Police said one of Pouncey’s family members had brought the gun into the home after finding it somewhere without their mother’s knowledge.
The city’s mayor knows the family and comforted the child’s mother moments after he was rushed to the hospital.
“Regardless of the circumstances concerning this tragic death, our hearts are broken as this family must now deal with the loss of this young child,” Calumet City Mayor Thaddeus Jones said in a statement. “I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.”
At the time of the shooting, investigators say the boy was home with his mother and three siblings who are all under the age of 15.
“This poor mother, she’s innocent in this,” Calumet City spokesperson Sean Howard said.
“I have a nephew that’s 6 years old that goes to the same school district and I couldn’t sleep last night,” Calumet City 3rd Ward Ald. DeAndre Tillman said.
Calumet City Police Chief Kevin Kolosh said all parents need to talk to their children about gun safety during a press conference Friday morning.
“Parents need to have talks with their children, whether or not they have guns in the house, and the conversation should specifically state, ‘do not touch the guns, and if you see a gun, notify a responsible adult,'” he said.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has been notified, and the victim’s siblings were placed with other family members, officials said.
Officials said the family is cooperating with police.
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