Mateo Zastro Chicago toddler boy killed in road rage shooting: no arrests as investigators seek perpetrators who fired into back of family car.
A three-year-old boy was shot and killed in the back of his mother’s car in a Chicago road rage incident over the weekend.
Mateo Zastro was riding with his family in the white SUV on the Southwest Side Friday night when a red sedan pulled up and a gunman in the back seat opened fire at the vehicle which at the time included the victim, three other siblings along with the children’s mother.
The mother had tried to drive away after becoming embroiled in a dispute with the occupants of a red sedan after leaving the mall near 44th & West Marquette Road in the West Lawn neighborhood around 8.30pm.
But the red car followed her and brazenly shot into the family vehicle, hitting the 3 year old toddler in the head. Despite Mateo being rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center the infant died eight hours later ABC 7 Chicago reported.
‘The mother attempted to leave from the other vehicles, when the offender subsequently followed her,’ 8th District Commander Bryan Spreyne said. ‘Several shots were fired.’
Cowardly act of violence
Mateo is the second child to be shot in the head while sitting in a vehicle in Chicago in less than a month.
The Windy City ranks seventh in America for murders, according to the nytimes.
The suspects were thought to have been driving a red Ford Mustang but other reports said it could be a Dodge Charger.
Reiterated Spreyne: ‘I want to offer our deep and profound condolences to the family of this precious 3-year-old child. Our hearts are broken by the senseless act of violence that took this child’s life.’
‘We will not rest until those responsible for this senseless and cowardly act of violence are brought to justice’.
The mother and her three other children were left unscathed following the assault. She reportedly drove away from the road rage shooting and flagged down officers for help.
‘I just got panicked and hit the ground,’ Roger Ramirez told CBS News, who lives a few doors down from where the shooting happened and got a bullet through his window.
$7K reward
‘It came directly through my window and when I was closing the blinds, that’s when I heard the impact and I just panicked,’ he said.
‘It’s just so sad to see it escalate to that and kill that little boy,’ Ramirez said. ‘I moved here recently because I thought it was a safe neighborhood.’
‘That child usually sits in the front seat next to his mother, but he wanted to get back to sit next to his brother,’ said community activist Andrew Holmes, who spent a couple hours trying to comfort the family on Saturday according to FOX32 Chicago.
A $7,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators in Mateo’s shooting death.
The city’s ShotSpotter gunshot-detection system indicated that 10 high-capacity rounds were fired in the vicinity of that residential Southwest Side intersection, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
An estimated 284 youngsters have been shot in Chicago already this year, with 43 of them aged 17 or younger fatally.
There have been 33 gunshot victims 12 or younger, and six of them were killed.
The youngest, 5-month-old Cecilia Thomas, was traveling in a car with her father when she was shot in the head in South Shore in June.
Chicago sees 18.4 murders per 100,000 of the population, compared to 7.5 for LA and 3.6 for New York.
The murder rate in 2022 stands at 545, just 120 behind 2021’s record murder rate of 645 with three months of the year to go.
