Evanston 5-year-old shot in Rogers Park

“Some of the victims are so young.”

So said District 65 School Board President Sergio Hernandez at the board’s meeting on Monday night. Hernandez then led the board in a moment of silence for a child hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

Hernandez told his colleagues that the youngster, Devin McGregor, is “a kindergartener who is fighting for his life” after the Sunday evening shooting on the 7600 block of North Paulina Street.

Hernandez did not give many details, but NBC5 has quoted the boy’s grandfather saying the youngster started last week at Willard Elementary School.

Citing Chicago Police, the TV station said the little boy, now in critical condition, was shot while in his mother’s car. The pair had been visiting the child’s father, who was also shot, in the shoulder and hand. He was hospitalized in good condition.

The Chicago Tribune has said the father was apparently the intended target. No one has been arrested in the case.

The boy’s mother, identified by the school board president as “Marie,” was not hit. But, Hernandez said, emotionally, she is “paralyzed.”

The board president also asked “how do we break the cycle of violence?”

One way, he said, is to “go beyond the children as test scores and data points” when helping them to grow and learn.

Update 9/2/22: The Chicago Sun-Times reports that 5-year-old Devin McGregor died from the gunshot wound Thursday evening.