McCarthy says
9-year-old boy targeted, lured into alley and executed
Chicago
police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says Tyshawn Lee was targeted. (WGN-TV)
Top cop: Boy was
targeted because of father's gang ties, lured into alley and executed
Nine-year-old
Tyshawn Lee was targeted because of his father's gang ties, lured into a South
Side alley Monday afternoon and executed, Chicago police officials said Thursday.
Speaking at the edge of the Gresham alley
where Tyshawn was shot multiple times, Chicago police Superintendent Garry McCarthy called the slaying "probably the most abhorrent, cowardly,
unfathomable crime" he had seen in his 35 years in law enforcement.
McCarthy said police believe Tyshawn was
killed because of his father's gang ties and a recent series of shootings
between rival gangs.
Law enforcement sources have told the Tribune
that the bloody conflict involves rival factions of two of Chicago's oldest
gangs — the Gangster Disciples and the Black P Stones. Police believe the
Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones targeted Pierre Stokes' son because
his father, a convicted felon, reputedly belongs to the Gangster Disciples'
Killa Ward faction.
Last month, a Killa Ward member was wounded
and a teenage woman killed in a retaliatory shooting just days after a Terror
Dome member was fatally shot and his mother wounded, according to police.
Tyshawn, a fourth-grader at Joplin Elementary
School who loved to play basketball, was walking to his grandmother's house
Monday afternoon when police said he was lured to the alley in the 8000 block
of South Damen Avenue and shot repeatedly. A basketball he always carried with
him was found nearby.
McCarthy told reporters that Stokes might know
who killed his son but that he has refused to cooperate with police. When
investigators approached him, Stokes responded with words that "you can't
say ... on TV," McCarthy said.
"I don't think he's a witness to it, so
I'm not sure how he could help us, but I could tell you this, I'm a father,
many of us here are fathers," McCarthy said. "My reaction would be a
little bit different."
Stokes, who lives a few blocks away, was
talking to a Chicago police officer near the scene of his son's killing when
McCarthy's news conference ended. Reporters asked him to respond to McCarthy's
comments.
"No, I don't think it was no retaliation
because I never did nothing to — for nobody to hurt my son," he said.
Asked if he had the names of any suspects he
could provide police, he answered, "No, I do not."
Earlier in the week, Stokes, 25, told the
Tribune no one would have a motive to kill him, but if someone did there was no
reason to take it out on his son because he's out in the neighborhood all the
time. If anyone wanted to harm him, it wouldn't be difficult, he said.
"I'm not hard to find," Stokes said.
Chicago
Police Department asks for community's help solving slaying of Tyshawn Lee.
Nov. 5, 2015. (WGN-TV)
In the Tribune interview, Stokes did not talk
specifically about whether he was a gang member but said he disagreed with what
police have said about him. He also expressed frustration with Chicago police,
saying investigators seem more interested in him than in finding who fatally
shot Tyshawn.
"They're more worried about me. Why are
you worried about me, not the killer?" Stokes said outside his residence
in the Auburn-Gresham community. "I'm not the killer. Worry about the
killer."
But Stokes said he did think his son was
targeted, citing how he was shot multiple times.
Earlier Thursday, Stokes showed up at the
Leighton Criminal Court Building for a status hearing on a felony gun charge he
faces. His attorney didn't appear, so the judge gave him a continuance after
Stokes mentioned "my son was killed."
According to court records, Stokes pleaded
guilty to armed robbery in mid-2011 and was sentenced to six years in state
prison.
Stokes was on parole in June 2014 when police
responded to a call that a person had pulled a gun, records show. When officers
arrived, he was spotted running into a residence in the 7900 block of South
Wood Street with a gun in his hand, according to records. A loaded .45-caliber
semi-automatic with a defaced serial number was recovered in the apartment,
authorities alleged. Stokes was charged with unlawful use of a weapon. He has
pleaded not guilty.
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the
investigation said police armed with search warrants raided at least three
residences Wednesday night in Auburn-Gresham — including one tied to Stokes —
in connection with Tyshawn's killing. The source said police were looking for
drugs.
McCarthy said leads are pouring in from the
community but investigators don't have the evidence yet to make an arrest.
A person of interest who had surrendered
Monday evening with a lawyer was later released from Area South police
headquarters after being questioned by detectives. McCarthy said the man
refused to give a statement, so investigators had to let him go.
"We're pretty certain that we know
exactly how it occurred. We know when it occurred. We're pretty certain that we
even know the individuals involved," McCarthy told reporters. "But we
need a little bit more to make sure that (an arrest) happens."
The reward money for information leading to
Tyshawn's killer has risen to about $35,000, he said.
McCarthy said police believe Tyshawn's slaying
was the latest in a series of "gang-related, violent events" between
two gangs since at least August.
Law enforcement sources have said that police
are looking into whether Tyshawn was killed in retaliation for his father's
alleged role in a gang rivalry that resulted in at least two recent slayings on
the South Side.
Tracey Morgan, a parolee, was fatally shot
Oct. 13 after leaving a "gang call-in" meeting, an anti-violence
effort by Chicago police and other law enforcement. His mother, who was also in
the vehicle, was wounded by the gunfire. Police were investigating whether
Morgan, a reputed member of the Terror Dome faction, was followed by a rival
gang member who also attended the meeting in a Chatham neighborhood church.
Five days later, a member of the rival Killa
Ward faction was wounded in a shooting near 78th and Honore streets in Gresham
that also left 19-year-old Brianna Jenkins dead, according to police.
Even with the level of violence Chicago is
experiencing this year — homicides and shootings each are up 18 percent through
Oct. 25 compared with a year earlier — it is rare for young children to be
targeted by gangs.
At the news conference, Deputy Chief Fred
Waller, who heads patrol operations for much of the South Side, acknowledged
frustration over Tyshawn's killing, especially because it occurred in the
Gresham police district where he once served as a patrolman and its district
commander.
Through
October, the district has recorded 28 homicides, just two more than a year
earlier, but it is tied for the second most killings among the city's 22 patrol
districts, according to department statistics. Shooting incidents in the
district have soared 32 percent to 140 so far this year.
"The (Gresham) District is my home,"
Waller said. "And I've never seen anything like this, so the frustration
runs deep. All the officers, everybody is working doubly hard trying to find
any type of leads or anything that we can do to try to solve this heinous
crime."
The Rev. Michael Pfleger, the activist pastor
of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Auburn-Gresham, told reporters that Tyshawn's
death was a new low in Chicago violence.
"Now we're going to target family
members? We're going to target mothers? We're going to target grandmothers?
We're going to target babies?"
Chicago
Tribune's Annie Sweeney and Steve Schmadeke contributed.
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