Chicago Toddler Hit With Bullet For Second Time In 2 Years

Chicago Shooting violence — Police officers investigate a shooting scene Sept. 28, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago police officer Ella French was shot and killed during a shooting Saturday. She leaves behind a two-month-old child. Scott Olson

A 5-year-old Chicago boy accidentally shot himself in the hand Tuesday night, marking the second time the boy had been struck by a bullet in two years, according to police. Last year, the boy was struck by a bullet in the face while walking with his mother in Chicago’s South Side.

Kavan Collins was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in good condition, the same hospital the boy was taken to last June when the other stray bullet hit him in the jaw.

Authorities initially said the boy wasn’t shot, but injured when a gun went off in his hand, according to the Chicago Tribune. When the boy arrived at the hospital, however, the injury was updated and classified as a gun wound, according to Chicago Police spokesperson Thomas Sweeney.

Police said they were questioning an unidentified man about how the boy got a gun.

The last time Collins was shot was in June 2016. Collins was walking with his mother, brother and a family friend at the time when the group heard fireworks followed by gunshots. Collins was struck by a bullet, as was a 28-year-old-woman who was struck in the head when a bullet tore through the wall and window of her home.

The bullets were fired from a car at a group of people gathered in the courtyard of a building. Neither Collins nor the woman were the intended targets, according to police. At least 16 other people were shot across the city that day in June.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday morning, two other people aside from Collins were shot in Chicago.

A 17-year-old was shot in the arm while he was walking in an alley in Chicago’s South Side. A car pulled up next to him and someone inside opened fire. No suspects were arrested, the boy remained in good condition. A 40-year-old man was shot in the leg at a gas station on the northwest side.

Last year there 4,234 people shot in the city. This year, Chicago is on pace to have many fewer shooting victims than 2016: as of Dec. 18, the city saw 750 fewer than last year. The most violent month this year was July.