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'He loved this city': Mother of 4-year-old shot and killed while visiting Chicago pleads for justice

By and FOX 32 Digital Staff
Published  September 9, 2021 4:51pm CDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 32 Chicago

Mother of 4-year-old shot and killed pleads for justice

A mother is pleading for justice after her 4-year-old son was shot and killed over Labor Day weekend in Woodlawn on the South Side.

CHICAGO - A mother is pleading for justice after her 4-year-old son was shot and killed over Labor Day weekend in Woodlawn on the South Side.

The shooting happened just hours after a family from Alabama arrived in the city for what was supposed to be a fun weekend trip.

Mychal "MJ" Moultry Jr., 4, was getting a haircut in a home in the 6500 block of South Ellis Avenue on Friday night when bullets smashed through a front window, striking the boy twice in the head.

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Mychal's father held him until paramedics arrived, community activist Andrew Holmes said.

He was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital where he died on Sunday. He was the second 4-year-old shot in Chicago in a week, and the second 4-year-old killed in the city this year.

"Y'all killed him for nothing, absolutely nothing. He didn't deserve to lose his life," said Angela Gregg, mother of MJ.

At the scene of the shooting, investigators recovered 27 shell casings from the front yard of a three-story apartment building that had a shattered front window.

Gregg says Mychal recently started pre-school and was excited to visit Chicago for Labor Day weekend.

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"He loved this city and y'all murdered him. My family doesn't even tell me when we come to visit, they don't even say, 'have fun'. They say ‘be safe, be careful’," Gregg said.

"To those that know something, you cannot say that you care about what happened to this beautiful child and remain silent," said Father Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church.

Chicago's top cop pleads with public after weekend shootings wound 8 children

Chicago’s top cop is pleading with the city’s criminals to "stay away from children" after a violent weekend left several kids wounded, including a 4-year-old boy who was killed.

Chicago Police Supt. David Brown pleaded with the community Monday to help detectives after Mychal and seven other children were shot over the weekend.

"We need people in the community to come forward. This is beyond trusting police. This is about the safety of our babies," Brown told reporters.

A $9,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction of MJ's killer.