'It's shocking': 9-year-old boy shot and killed inside South Side home

Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Cmdr. Sean Joyce and Cmdr. Heather Daniel inform media of the shooting death of a 9-year-old boy in Chicago's Washington Heights neighborhood on the city's South Side. Photo credit Chicago Police Department

CHICAGO — A 9-year-old boy was fatally shot Sunday night in Washington Heights on the South Side.

The boy, identified by the Cook County medical examiner as Jarvis Watts, was shot while inside his home about 6:30 p.m in the 9400 block of South Wallace Street, Chicago police spokesman Tom Ahern said.

Jarvis was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

An extended family lives inside the home, and there were multiple children and adults inside when the boy was shot, CPD Cmdr. Sean Joyce told reporters outside of the hospital. It appeared the shooting happened inside the home.

Several adults are being questioned by detectives, Joyce said. It wasn’t immediately clear who the gun belonged to, or how many gunshot wounds the boy suffered. The gun hasn’t been recovered, he said.

At the home, officers with flashlights combed through the inside of the home. The boy’s family embraced each other as they stood by the police tape surrounding their home.

A woman who lives on the block said the street was usually quiet, so she was surprised to see so many police cars.

“We have a lot of older people that live on the block. All of us, we look after each other, so it’s shocking,” said the woman, who asked not to be named. “We don’t normally see activity like this.”

The woman, who said she was born and raised on the South Side, said she’s familiar with the violence that’s been tied to the city for so long. She’s not sure what can be done to stop it.

“You can only do so much, and there’s a lot of stuff that happens that you can’t control over time,” she said. “People are gonna do what they’re gonna do.”

“Who would have thought that this was gonna happen on New Years Day?” the woman said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2023. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Featured Image Photo Credit: Chicago Police Department