Teen charged in shooting near Little Village elementary school
Jan 15, 2026
Charges, including attempted murder, were filed against an 18-year-old man who police said shot another man, critically injuring him near a Little Village elementary school and leaving parents and teachers on edge Tuesday morning.Kaleb Ortega-Guardiola, 18, was charged with attempted murder and aggr
avated battery, police said.Ortega-Guardiola, of the 2700 block of South Lawndale Avenue, was scheduled for a detention hearing Friday at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, police said. Tuesday about 8:40 a.m., the 31-year-old male victim was driving north in Little Village when he was shot in his head, around the corner from the Little Village Academy Elementary School at 2620 S. Lawndale Ave.After being shot, the driver lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a parked car as his assailant fled, according to police, who said no one else was hurt.The victim was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.Maria Alarcon, who has taught at the school for six years, said students and teachers in the school’s smaller building heard the shots before going into lockdown. She thought music would help.“I teach third grade, so we kind of went into a cute little, you know, ‘Let’s play some music to kind of block everything out,”’ Alarcon said.Gigi Tolentino, whose 4-year-old daughter, Angela, attends Head Start there, said she believes school staffers could have better informed parents, such as via email or phone calls “as soon” as something happened.“Because us, as parents, we worry,” Tolentino said.Ortega-Guardiola was arrested a couple of hours after the shooting. Sun-Times reporter Elleiana Green contributed.
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