Boy, nine, is shot dead at random in broad daylight after running out of his house while upset because his mother wouldn't give him a cupcake

Antonio S mith was shot multiple times in a neighbor 's backyard on th e city's South Side

He was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital but died of his injuries

His mother, Brandi Murry, said the 9-year-old left the house after she told him he couldn't have the sugary treat he'd requested

Police have no suspects in custody



Antonio Smith, 9, was fatally shot in Chicago on Wednesday, after he left from his house while upset over not getting a cupcake

A 9-year-old boy has been fatally shot on Chicago's South Side, after he ran away from home while upset over not getting a cupcake.



Antonio Smith's mother, Brandi Murry, said Antonio had called her at work earlier on Wednesday asking about a treat, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.



She told the 9-year-old she would be home soon and denied his request. Upset, he left the house about 3:45pm.

'He got mad because I didn’t give him what he wanted,' Murry, 34, told the Sun-Times.

About an hour later, he was being taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, with gunshots to the chest.



Police responding to a report of shots fired found Antonio lying in the backyard of an apartment building.

When she arrived home and found Antonio gone, Murry said she called police to report him missing and they arrived five minutes later.

'They asked me to show a picture of him,' Murry told ABC 7 Chicago.

'Once I did that, they told me to come to the hospital.'

As of Thursday evening, police had no one in custody in the shooting.

Chicago police said a dispute between two factions of a street gang recently flared in the neighborhood, but they said they don't have any indication the victim belonged to a gang.

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First responders rush Antonio Smith to the hospital after he was found shot multiple times in a neighbor's backyard

A Chicago ambulance rushed the 9-year-old boy in critical condition to Comer Children's Hospital. Antonio died of his injuries shortly after

Antonio's parents said they know of no reason anyone would target their son.

Cousin Kenya Eggleston said the family was struggling to make sense of the shooting.

'He was just a child, just a baby, still had a whole life ahead of him,' she said.



Distraught relatives and dozens of others gathered Thursday in the backyard where the boy had been shot a day earlier.

'My baby, he was a good kid,' his mother wailed. 'He was a mama's boy. He stayed up under me. He called me every day. I'm at work, 'Mama, I love you. Mama, can I have this. Mama, can I have that.

'My boy, he was just an angel.'

Antonio would have started fourth grade this fall. He loved dancing, hamburgers and telling jokes.

Antonio was about to enter fourth grade at the William Augustus Hinton School. He had just started playing Pee Wee football.



He loved dancing, hamburgers and telling jokes. His favorite artist was Chris brown.



' All he did was joke and laugh and play,' his mother told the Sun-Times.



Outraged public and community leaders were offering a reward Thursday for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in the boy's death.



'I love my city, but the city took something from me that I love even more,' Antonio's stepfather, Kawada Hodges, told ABC 7 Chicago. 'And that was my son. That was my little guy right there.'



Antonio is the latest of at least 11 children under 18 years of age who have been shot to death this summer in Chicago, several of them by stray bullets.

Activist priest Father Michael Pfleger of Chicago's St. Sabina's Roman Catholic Church gathered with neighborhood residents and others at the murder scene late Thursday.

'We should be as outraged about that as Michael Brown in Ferguson,' Pfleger said, referring to the protests in Ferguson, Missouri after the 18-year-old was fatally shot by a policeman earlier this month.

'At the end of the day, another black child is dead. And whatever the excuse somebody may have done that for — unacceptable.'