By BECKY SCHLIKERMAN
Chicago Sun-Times
Little Dillan Harris, being pushed in a stroller by his mother, died Saturday afternoon when he was run down by a vehicle fleeing a deadly gang shooting in Woodlawn.
Dillan Harris, just over a year old, was struck and killed Saturday by a vehicle fleeing a deadly gang shooting on the South Side. | Family photo
Dillan had celebrated his first birthday May 21.
“I tried to save my baby,” his mother said later as she gathered with grieving relatives on the South Side.
She said she’d been standing, waiting at a bus stop at 63rd and Ellis a little before 2 p.m. Saturday with her three kids—Dillan and his two older sisters. On a warm day, they were headed for a family outing at 63rd Street Beach.
That’s when a westbound car, which Chicago Police said was fleeing a shooting in the 7700 block of South Kingston that claimed the life of a 22-year-old man, raced up.
A makeshift memorial on the South Side for 1-year-old Dillan Harris, killed in his stroller Saturday by a car fleeing a gang killing. | Becky Schlikerman / Chicago Sun-Times
“All of a sudden, they swerved and hit a pole and hit my baby,” said the mother, who declined to give her name.
She said she tried to push all of her kids out of the way but didn’t have enough time to get Dillon clear of the danger.
“It happened in the blink of an eye,” she said. “When I looked up, they were just there. I tried my best to save my baby.”
When she saw the stroller had been hit, she said, “I knew he was gone,”
Dillan was taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital. He was pronounced dead there.
The boy’s nickname was Dill Pickle.
“He was always smiling,” his mother said. “He was such a happy baby.”
The police were questioning two people Saturday evening in connection with both incidents.
The 22-year-old man, who was shot in the back and hip, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died later Saturday, according to the police.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office had not release is identity as of Sunday morning.