Chicago police said the boy was rushed to Roseland Community Hospital, but he did not survive.
At around 9:45 p.m., a fire broke out inside a home in Altgeld Gardens on the far South Side.
Police said four other children, ages 13, 5, 4, and 1 were able to get out of the building with the help of a neighbor, Angie Flemings. It was traumatizing, and I panicked, Flemings said.
She said she heard her neighbor s smoke detectors going off, and then a 13-year-old boy started banging on her door pleading for help to get his 6-year-old brother out of a second-floor bedroom. His three other siblings, ages 5, 4 and 1, were also still inside.
The Cook County Medical Examiner s Office handed a record 16,049 cases in 2020, far surpassing the previous record of 10,654 set in 1977. The county s 8,192 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, officials said, accounted for more than half of cases. Nearly half of all cases reported in 2020 were Black or Latino residents.
Approximately 6,200 deaths are reported in the county on an average year.
Additionally, a record number of opioid overdose deaths occurred in 2020. A total of 1,599 opioid overdose deaths had been confirmed as of Friday, while approximately 450-500 cases were awaiting toxicology results.
In 2019, Cook County saw its previous high of 1,277 opioid overdose deaths.
The medical examiner s office revealed that overall suicides did not increase year over year. However, the rate of suicide in Black communities dramatically increased in 2020. Black residents accounted for 94 of the 432 suicides in 2020, which is a 65% increase from 2019, officials said.
Fatal shootings rose by 53%, with December shootings totaling 50, compared with just 19 a year earlier.
According to the Cook County Medical Examiner s office, 78% of the gun violence victims were Black. The county also reported a record 16,049 total deaths in 2020 a huge jump largely due to coronavirus fatalities.
In May, Chicago experienced its deadliest Memorial Day weekend in five years, with 49 people shot 10 of them fatally.
On May 31 alone, there were 18 homicides, more than any single day in memory, according to The Associated Press.
The increase in violent crime has been blamed on myriad factors, including the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local restrictions, an unprecedented economic crisis, and the deaths of Black men and women at the hands of law enforcement.