A 15-year-old boy was killed in a shooting in Bronzeville Tuesday afternoon, Chicago police said.
Chicago police said the teen was in the 3300-block of South Prairie Avenue around 3:15 p.m. when he was approached by someone who then pulled out a gun and opened fire.
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The teen was struck in the head and taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead, police said.
Two suspects were taken into custody shortly after 5 p.m. on 63rd Street near State Street during a traffic stop, Chicago police said. They are being questioned.
The victim was identified as Michael Brown. He was walking home from his school, the Chicago Military Academy, where he was a freshman, at the time of the shooting.
A neighbor, who was working from home at the time, said he heard at least half a dozen gunshots.
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“I just heard like pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. So I text my neighbor upstairs. I’m like, ‘man is that gunfire?’ and he said ‘yeah,” Reginald Jones said.
Police have not announced any further details about the two men taken in for questioning, only saying they believe they are connected to the teen’s shooting.
Less than an hour after that shooting, a second teenager was shot and killed.
Investigators said a 16-year-old boy was standing at 62nd Street and South Greenwood Avenue in Woodlawn, when he was shot in the head.
A person of interest from that shooting is also in custody.
Chicago Military Academy parents said the thought of a student being shot nearby is unsettling.
Venisa McGruder’s daughter knew Brown.
“She said she was just at lunch with him before they left school; they were all at lunch, talking, having a good time being teenagers, being kids, and somebody just took his life away. They just took it,” McGruder said.
Word of the shooting, and Brown’s death, is traveling fast throughout the school community.
“I was shocked. I see him every day, so it’s like you see somebody every day, then to hear he got shot walking home from school, that could have been me or my friends. It’s sad,” Makayla Sellers said.
McGruder said something more needs to be done to protect young people.
“I’m afraid to even let her take the bus home at this point. So, I just, I’m really praying for his parents. I’m really upset about this; I’m freaked out. I’m afraid for my child at this point,” she said.
Chicago Military Academy said help is available to students who need it.
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