OPRF Student Shot and Killed 2 Days Before 17th Birthday

CHICAGO, IL - A senior at Oak Park-River Forest High School was shot and killed on Chicago's West Side Monday night.

Family members have identified the victim as 16-year-old Elijah Sims.

Sims was standing on the corner of Quincy Street and Lotus Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood with a 15-year-old friend around 10:15 p.m. when someone came up to them and began shooting. Sims was shot in the head, according to a WLS report.

“Someone came and started shooting, and he took off running with the rest of the crowd, and the bullet got him in the head, and he was laying right here," Sims' aunt, Wanda, said in a CBS report. "Y’all don’t know what y’all did to our family. Please, please stop the senseless shooting."

Oak Park-Park River Forest High School has had its crisis team in place on Tuesday and will have people available throughout the day, Principal Nathaniel L. Rouse wrote in a letter to families. Students who need assistance in dealing with the tragedy are urged to contact a member of the school's Student Services Team.

Sims, who would have turned 17 on Wednesday, was pronounced dead Tuesday morning at Stroger Hospital.

The 15-year-old was shot in the back. His condition stabilized at Stroger.