CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A 10-month-old girl was critically wounded Monday morning after being shot on the Bishop Ford Expressway on the South Side, Illinois state police said.
The child, 10-month-old Ny’ori Askew, was shot while secured in the back seat of a northbound car on I-94 north of 115th Street, according to Illinois State Police.
The driver, a 21-year-old man, heard a single gunshot at 11:15 a.m. and then noticed the baby was injured, state police said. A 17-year-old girl who was also in the car was not injured.
The child, shot in the temple, was driven to Roseland Hospital, Chicago police said. She was in the process of being transferred to a trauma center.
Community activist Andrew Holmes said the incident underscores the need to put a system of license-plate-reading cameras on expressways to help solve such shootings.
Holmes said he knows some people have raised questions about privacy being violated if more cameras are placed on expressways, but he asked: “What privacy is it when someone shoots inside a car?”
Illinois State Police are looking for information that could lead them to the person who shot the infant.
“My niece is fighting for her life, because somebody came and shot up a car on the expressway, not even knowing if this was your intended target – just shooting,” said Ny’ori’s great aunt, Tiara Smothers.
On Monday night, Early Walker – founder of the group I’m Telling, Don’t Shoot, put up a cash reward of $10,000 for information leading to an arrest.
“This was on the expressway, so someone knows something. Someone seen something. Someone saw something,” Walker said.