A 13-year-old boy was shot in a South Chicago neighborhood, only a block from where he helped assist a 10-year-old gunshot victim in 2020.
Swaysee Rankin and his 14-year-old cousin were hit with bullets as they were walking on a sidewalk around 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to Chicago police.
Rankin suffered gunshot wounds to his back and abdomen. His cousin was shot in his chest and abdomen, and both were in critical condition when they arrived at Comer Children’s Hospital, police said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Rankin’s mother, Ashley Jackson, suggested that the shooting could be random.
“My son is absolutely not gang-affiliated from my knowledge. It was a drive-by shooting, just something random,” she told reporters outside the hospital Tuesday. “He left out of one house, and he was on the way to the next with a group of friends, and somebody just pulled up and started shooting.”
The shooting occurred just one block from where Rankin’s 10-year-old friend, La’Mya Sparks, was shot in the back in October 2020. Rankin came to her aid, removing his shirt and putting pressure on Sparks’s wound until paramedics arrived, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
“After we got the news, La’Mya ran through the house screaming, ‘Swaysee got shot!’” said Shawnta Williams, Sparks’s mother.
Rankin and his cousin were out of surgery Tuesday and were talking, his family said.
“Some people don’t make it outta this at all, and for them to be little boys, they’re strong, super strong, and it’s a blessing,” Jackson said.
Eight children aged 13 years or younger have been shot in Chicago in 2021, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams and 11-year-old Ny’Andrea Dyer both died.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Chicago police for more information about the Monday shooting but did not immediately receive a response.
