A 7-year-old boy and two women were killed in Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood Thursday morning when several ski mask-clad gunmen drove up to their house, got out of their car, and opened fire on their home, ABC-7 Eyewitness News and The Chicago Tribune report.
The boy was identified as Bryson Orr, the grandson of Toni Strong Upshaw. Ms Upshaw’s daughter and granddaughter were also killed, and two of her great-grandsons, 5 and 8 years old, were critically injured and transported to a Level One trauma center.
ABC-7 reported that members of this South Side community rallied Friday evening to promote healing in the community. “I don’t know why somebody would come in the house to shoot somebody with a kid in their hands,” the station quoted another family member, whose mother was killed in the incident, as saying.
Bryson was a student at Paul Revere Elementary School. “He was like a brother to me, for real,” ABC-7 quoted one of his classmates as saying. “Whenever I’m feeling down, he was always right there, like, ‘What’s wrong?’ Man, I’m just down, for real.”