Evander Ellis|Drive-by shooting kills 9-year-old boy playing at his grandma's birthday party

2025-05-01 01:58:28source:Chameleon Financecategory:Scams

Family remembers 9-year-old killed at Franklin Park birthday party
Family remembers 9-year-old killed at Franklin Park birthday party02:17

A 9-year-old boy attending his grandmother's birthday party in a Chicago suburb was killed in a drive-by shooting, police said.

Ulysses Campos had been playing with a group of children in an alley late Saturday when four to six shots were fired from a moving vehicle, Franklin Park police director Michael Witz said in a statement Sunday night. CBS Chicago reported that Ulysses was just two weeks away from turning 10, and was playing with his cousins while the adults were inside. 

The boy was struck in the chest and died after being taken to a hospital, police said. Ulysses' uncle, Ottilo Campos,  told CBS Chicago his family has placed a cross at the site of the shooting, and that Campos' father held the boy before he was taken to the hospital. 

"This was not targeted," Ottilo Campos told CBS Chicago. "It was just a random act of violence. ... There's a lot of emotions, sadness, anger. Anger the most, because he's 9." 

Ulysses Campos was just two weeks shy of turning 10 years old when he was shot and killed outside of his grandmother's house. He was there to attend a birthday party for his grandmother when someone inside a car opened fire while driving past. Provided to CBS

No one else was struck by gunfire in the 10:15 p.m. shooting, which happened in a Franklin Park neighborhood about a mile outside Chicago's western city limits. 

Police said a person of interest in the shooting was taken into custody, and officers found a car suspected to be involved in the shooting in nearby Leyden Township. They asked anyone with information to contact the department.

Ottilo Campos said that for now, the family is focusing on remembering Ulysses in a positive way. 

"He was one of those kids that if you were having a bad day, he would try to make you laugh," Campos said. "He had an infectious smile. He lived for life. He was a true daddy's boy. He wanted to do so many things, gamer, YouTube star, social media influencer, all that stuff. We'll never know now, because he was 9."

    In:
  • Chicago
  • Crime
  • Shootings

More:Scams

Recommend

These Australian twins have gone viral after speaking in synch

Do you recall the prime early days of YouTube? When a video making the rounds was so strange, remark

Today is 2023's Summer Solstice. Here's what to know about the official start of summer

The summer solstice for 2023 is Wednesday, June 21. That's the day when the Northern Hemisphere sees

Renewable Energy Standards Target of Multi-Pronged Attack

Despite little success so far and growing support nationally for clean energy, a multi-pronged campa