As Maria Luna made the nearly two-hour drive from her Rockford home to Stroger Hospital, she didn’t know whether her 2-year-old son had taken his final breath.
Luna had been told her son Jaylen had shot himself at his father’s Humboldt Park home Monday night but she didn’t know the extent of his injuries.
“I was just praying that he was alive,” Luna said Tuesday morning as she sat at his hospital bedside.
As it turned out, the boy was only grazed by the bullet.
Jaylen was in a bedroom at the home in the 400 block of North Lawndale Avenue around 8:25 p.m. when a gun went off and a bullet struck the boy in the wrist, according to Chicago police.
A man living at the address had come home around 8:20 p.m. that night and placed his belongings and firearm on a bedroom table, according to police reports obtained by the Sun-Times.
The boy and another person then entered the room before witnesses at the home heard a “loud bang,” according to the reports.
The firearm owner told officers he had an active concealed carry license and firearm owner identification card, authorities said.
The 23-year-old gun owner and another person were taken into custody initially, police said. There was no word on charges.
Jaylen was taken to Stroger, where he was in good condition.
On Tuesday, Luna watched her son play, eat — and recover.
“He was just sitting there watching Mickey Mouse. He’s perfectly fine,” she said as she waited for him to be discharged. “He just ate pancakes and bacon. He’s in his room playing.”