Crime is Down?

We're beginning to have our doubts.

Maybe it's the ages of crime victims that are down?

• A family had simply pulled over to find a house where they were to meet an out-of-town guest when a 16-year-old on probation for armed robbery walked up to the driver’s side, took a shooting stance and opened fire, leaving their 12-year-old son with a fractured skull, bullet fragments on his brain and temporarily paralyzed, prosecutors say.

  The pulled over in the 900 block of North Leamington to locate the address around 6:45 p.m. on February 3, prosecutors said. The 12-year-old was in the backseat next to his 1-year-old sibling. As the father searched for the house, he saw Nasir Pitts approach on the driver’s side and take a shooting stance, according to a detention filing.

  The father screamed for the family to get down as Pitts allegedly fired five shots, striking the boy in the head. Prosecutors said the father sped away from the scene while the mother called 911. Officers and paramedics caught up with them and transported the boy to a hospital, where doctors found a fractured skull and bullet fragments in his brain. He suffered temporary paralysis and continues to receive treatment, the detention filing said.

The sixteen-year-old shooter was ::surprise!:: on probation for an armed robbery....committed when he was fourteen.

The twelve-year-old victim wasn't the youngest crime victim by the way:

• A young girl was among three people shot Wednesday on the city's South Side, Chicago police said. All three victims were reported to be in good condition after escaping with their lives from what appeared to be a barrage of bullets.

  The shooting happened just after 4:45 p.m. in the Lake Meadows Shopping Center at East 35th Street and South King Drive i n Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, right outside Baskin Robbin's and Subway restaurants.

  The victims, an 8-year-old girl, a 28-year-old woman and a 24-year-old man, were at the location when a dark-colored SUV approached and at least one person fired shots at them from the vehicle, police said.

  The girl was shot in the foot, the woman was shot in the knee, and the man had multiple gunshot wounds, including to his arm and chest. CPD said. They were all taken to hospitals and were reported to be in good condition.

At least we're not New York....yet. A seven-MONTH-old in a stroller caught a stray round and died Wednesday.