Police have charged Corey Morgan, 27, with first degree murder in the shooting death of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, officials announced during a news conference Friday. Tyshawn Lee was failed on many, many levels. One, Corey Morgan, has been arrested, another was already in jail on unrelated gun charges, and a third is still unaccounted for.
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Though police are confident that they know who was involved in Tyshawn’s death, they still have work to do.
Tyshawn’s father Pierre Stokes is reportedly a member of Gangster Disciples’ Killa Ward faction, and police believe the Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones targeted Tyshawn because of Stokes’ gang connections.
Meanwhile, marchers are expected to gather in Chicago’s city centre to protest against the police killing of Laquan McDonald, 17, by a white police officer previous year.
An autopsy report showed the gunman shot Tyshawn at such close range that the boy had powder burns on his face, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Superintendent McCarthy also reported that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Kevin Edwards, 22.
Investigators said at least three people were involved in the killing, but it’s not clear yet who did what. “It’s just a matter of when and quite frankly in a heinous crime like this he’s probably better off if we catch him than somebody else”, said McCarthy. Morgan was able to post the required ten-percent of the bond, after his girlfriend put up $100,000 from a settlement she won in a lawsuit against a hospital.
The announcement was made on Twitter early Friday by Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
That wasn’t the case surrounding Tyshawn’s shooting, however, with McCarthy lauding those who did come forward to help with the case.
Canellis said Morgan and two other men went out daily with guns looking to retaliate, Canellis said.
Around 4 p.m. on November 2, Tyshawn was lured into an alley near West 80th Street and South Damen Avenue and executed, police said.
Their mother, who was also in the vehicle, was wounded by the gunfire. The boy had defensive wounds as if he tried to block one of the gun shots, they said. That’s where Tyshawn was shot dead, down the street from his grandmother’s house, the Rev. Michael Pfleger said at the child’s funeral.
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Police say they saw a pistol tucked in Boone-Doty’s waistband as he and Morgan got into the vehicle and left a Hilton Hotel in south suburban Oak Lawn.
