Johnny Garcia ran into the hospital emergency room cradling his 4-year-old son in his arms and screaming for help Wednesday night.
Just moments earlier in the McKinely Park neighborhood, the boy had been shot as they drove in traffic coming home from Garcia’s niece’s birthday party where the happy-go-lucky boy had been bouncing on a trampoline.
A bullet hit the 4-year-old’s pancreas and grazed his spine.
“We’ve been up all night dealing with him. Doctors are doing a great job,” Garcia, 24, told the Chicago Sun-Times Thursday morning at the boy’s bedside at Stroger Hopsital. “That should’ve never happened to a 4-year-old.
“He’s doing way better; he just has a slight fever. He just keeps kicking in his sleep.”
Garcia declined to name the child due to safety concerns.
The boy was in a Volkswagon minivan with his parents, uncle, 5-year-old brother, 3-year-old sister and 5-year-old cousin around 7:10 p.m. Wednesday when a white Infiniti began tailgating them as they drove south on Ashland Avenue at Cermak Road, according to Garcia and police reports obtained by the Sun-Times.
“They were swerving erratically, passing through traffic. We noticed a guy brandishing a weapon,” said Garcia, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the minivan.
When they approached a viaduct at Ashland and Archer avenues, Garcia heard the gunman in the car behind them blast four to six rounds.
Glass shattered, the children began shrieking, and Garcia’s terrified wife, who is four months pregnant, realized her 4-year-old was shot.
“We were scared,” Garcia said. “He was vomiting in the car while he was shot, crying. His face was very drained and pale.
“My brother, thank God, drove super fast. We had to take red lights. We had to drive crazy to get him to the hospital.”
When they arrived at the University of Illinois hospital, Garcia scooped him up and raced inside, yelling at the top of his lungs. But he had to be transferred to Stroger Hospital where he had emergency surgery. The bullet hit his pancreas and grazed his spine, but his condition has been stabilized, authorities and Garcia said.
Garcia pondered why anyone would open fire on a vehicle with kids inside. He said the shooter threw up gang signs before opening fire.
“It’s obviously gang-affiliated, but why are you targeting a family that’s on their way home from a birthday party?” Garcia said. “We were going home. We just had cake. [He was] on the trampoline, and now he’s laying in the hospital with a hole in his stomach.”
Earlier Thursday, police announced the arrest of two persons of interest, and Garcia said he hopes to see those responsible for his son’s shooting behind bars.
“They weren’t concerned for safety. It’s like a daily activity for them to hurt people, innocent people,” he said.
No charges have been announced.
Julia Flores was at her cubicle inside H&R block when she heard the gunfire. She scrambled to lock the front door and went straight home.
“I just heard the shots and they were not firecrackers,” Flores said. “I was like, ‘Damn, it was the whole pistola.'”
“We never had action like this, it’s getting worse and worse,” Flores, who has worked near the intersection where the shooting happened for 26 years, added. “Innocent people are getting shot. What did a 4-year-old do to deserve this?”
Although Garcia and his family are devastated by the attack, they said they’re grateful that the boy, who is “very playful” and loves hugging everyone, is alive and fighting.
“I still feel like this is a traumatic experience. It affects our household, our family,” he said.
Pizza and playing at the park rank first in fun for him, said Garcia, who got emotional as he talked about what the boy enjoyed doing.
“He’s very polite and well-mannered,” Garcia said. “He loves to play fight with his brother.”
“It’s just a shock,” Garcia said. “He’s breathing through tubes, got all these cords connected to him.
“Chicago needs to do better.”