Teen Dead, Woman Hit By Bullet While Gardening: Police

NORTH CHICAGO, IL — A teen was fatally shot and an elderly woman was struck by a stray bullet while gardening Saturday night in North Chicago, authorities said. The North Chicago Police Department was called to the 2000 block of Greenfield Avenue at about 7:15 p.m. for a report of shots fired, according to a news release from the Lake County Major Crime Task Force.

A preliminary investigation into the shooting determined a person with a gun arrived at the scene in a vehicle, shot several times and then got back into the vehicle and fled, according to authorities.

Family members say the teen, who was identified as Sulayman Little, was playing basketball at the time of the shooting, according to WGN, and they do not believe he was the intended target.

“We was cooking and barbecuing, the kids was playing and all a sudden this craziness takes place,” great-uncle Anthony Brown told WGN. “We got a hole in our family now because of this.”

When officers arrived, they found an 18-year-old North Chicago man who'd been shot to death and was lying in the roadway. Police said a 77-year-old North Chicago woman was hit in her leg by a stray bullet while working in her garden nearby.

The woman was taken to a nearby hospital and is expected to survive her injury, according to a press release. An autopsy on the 18-year-old man has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The North Chicago Police Department and the Lake County Major Crime Task Force is investigating the shooting.