Mom of teen wounded in Near North Side mass shooting heard the gunfire; “he got shot nine times”

CHICAGO (CBS) — The mom of a 17-year-old boy who was wounded in a mass shooting that left two folks useless and 7 others injured late Thursday evening on the Near North Side was simply steps away when the gunfire rang out, and did every part she might to maintain her son alive.

“My baby could’ve died in my hands. I just told him, ‘Just stay up. Just talk to mommy.’ Me and the officer said, ‘Just keep saying your birthday.’ He’s been up ever since,” Kimberly Saunders stated.

Saunders lives downtown, and round 10:30 p.m. she was calling her 17-year-old son, Parnelius, to seek out out the place he was previous curfew, and she or he heard rounds of bullets from a block away.

She ran over, and located him mendacity on the floor outdoors the McDonald’s restaurant and CTA station close to Chicago Avenue and State Street.

A chaotic, heartbreaking video reveals her urgent down on his wounds, kneeling in the road in the center of the insanity to attempt to cease the bleeding.

“I was standing there holding my son while he was bleeding out. It took my shirt off,” she stated. “A officer just explained to me, like, I covered one wound, he covered another wound.”

She stated, earlier than the shooting, her son was simply hanging out at the McDonald’s, when a struggle broke out. It escalated, and he was caught in the crossfire.

“So he got shot nine times, and we’re just trying to find out now what … it’s a waiting game,” she stated.

Now he is recovering at Stroger Hospital, in intensive care after surgical procedure, and Kimberly needs solutions.

“I’m just upset, because of the accountability of the city. As I’m out there, offices are saying, ‘We don’t even got enough tape for this,'” she stated.

She lives downtown together with her son and two daughters. She stated there must be one thing carried out about massive teams inflicting hassle.

“We need a separate team to get the kids off the street, because it was kids mixed with adults. So my son got shot with adult men,” she stated. “I got some questions about protocols right now, because I witnessed firsthand: if I wasn’t there my son would have died.”

Kimberly stated her greatest worry now’s retaliation, and she or he’s asking anybody with details about what occurred to come back ahead.

The different eight victims of the shooting are between 20 and 46 years previous.

Another sufferer of the shooting spoke to CBS 2 after he was launched from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the place he was handled for 2 gunshot wounds.

“I was just with friends, just chilling. That’s all. Two of my friends are dead,” Shaun Davis stated. “People need to start putting those guns down.”