Chicago is in a state of emergency, we hate starting off stories like this;rnA 13-year-old boy died after he was repeatedly shot as he rode his bicycle near his West Pullman home Wednesday night, police
Chicago is in a state of emergency, we hate starting off stories like this;
A 13-year-old boy died after he was repeatedly shot as he rode his bicycle near his West Pullman home Wednesday night, police and family say.
A neighbor in the 11500 block of South Perry Avenue said he saw a gunman stand over Robert Freeman and continue firing into the boy’s body shortly after 8 p.m.
‘They said they found 22 holes in my baby’s body,’ said the boy’s mother, Theresa Lumpkin as she was comforted by the boy’s father in front of her house.
The boy’s father said the gunman wore a mask and fired into a crowd. ‘My son was the only one got hit,’ said Robert Freeman Sr. ‘I don’t understand how no one seen anything.’
This morning, Lumpkin walked down the block to the spot where her son was killed, marked with dark red blood.
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‘My baby was just lying there. He tried to get up. He tried to fight for his mama. He tried to fight for his life,’ Lumpkin said.
She said Robert was leaning against a car with friends when he was shot, and believes her son’s death was case of mistaken identity. She said he had only lived on the block for three months.
She said her son was going to be an eighth grader at Oglesby Elementary School and was spending the summer playing basketball in his backyard and riding his bicycle with other kids.
Lumpkin said he was mowing lawns to make a little extra cash.
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Freeman Sr. said his son ‘had the biggest smile you’d ever see on a child. (It) hurts right now, hurts.’
Robert was pronounced dead at 10:09 p.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
No one was in custody, Calumet Area detectives were investigating.
