A mother's intuition about danger: She tried to get help, then her 7-year-old son was killed
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It was a school night in October 2022, when Deidra Misters was with her 7-year-old son, Akeem Briscoe.
They had just finished dinner in their apartment on Potomac Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, and were in the bathroom. Akeem was washing his hands.
Suddenly, there was gunfire.
"Everything just happened so fast," said Deidra. "It was like pop, pop, pop. So I checked him. I'm like okay, I don't think he got hit," said Deidra. "Then he looked up at me, and he was like, 'Mom, I think I got a shot'."
Witnesses say a dozen bullets were fired in an escalating fight behind the family's home. Somehow, the only person hit was Akeem. A single stray bullet found its way through the family's kitchen window and into the bathroom, striking the second-grader as he stood by the sink.
"He was shot in the stomach," said Deidra through tears.
Deidra, a nursing assistant, lay on the floor next to her son trying to stop the bleeding.
"I just start to hold the pressure on the wound," said Deidra. "He didn't lose consciousness right away. He just kept trying to reassure me that he was okay. He kept saying, 'Mamma I'm OK. Mamma I'm going to be OK. I'm OK, Mommy'."
Those would be the last words she would ever hear from him. He died hours later in the hospital.
"He was shot and killed while washing his hands," said Deidra.
Deidra thinks Akeem would be alive today, had action been taken when she complained about her neighbor and constant gatherings of large crowds behind their building – in the place where they had their parking spots.
"I feel like all this could have been avoided. Because I complained to my apartment complex. I complained," said Deidra. "I emailed them and begged them to come and do pop-up visits."
She seemed to know, deep down, that her family could be in danger.
"I emailed them a year before all this happened - months before all this happened," said Deidra. "They told me to go to police station. I went down there - they told me they can't do nothing."
So concerned about the danger, Deidra stopped parking her car in her spot.
Cook County court records show an earlier fight at a nearby liquor store led to a confrontation behind Deidra's home. The offenders were targeting Deidra's neighbor and repeatedly fired at a car parked in Deidra's space - directly behind her kitchen window.
No one else was hit - just Akeem by a stray bullet.
"It went straight into the window," said Deidra.
She believes if she had been safely able to park in her spot, the trajectory of that one stray bullet would have changed.
"That night, if my car had been parked in my parking spot, my son wouldn't have got hit," said Deidra. "I'm in pain. My kids are in pain."
For Deidra and her surviving children, it would be their second funeral in two weeks. Her husband - their dad - Akbar Briscoe had just died after suffering a stroke.
"A week after I had to bury my husband, I had to start preparing for a funeral for my son," said Deidra.
The night before Akeem was killed - while sad about his father's death - he was excited because the next day he was going to the zoo on a field trip with his second-grade class.
"Talked about that trip," said Deidra. "Talked about that trip,"
Last month, Deidra returned to her old home to show CBS 2 which window the bullet went through.
Then something unexpected happened. The woman now living in the home, Marsha Severin, saw Deidra and came out to comfort her. The two strangers - both moms meeting for the first time - stood on the sidewalk and just held each other.
"I think about you all the time," said Marsha. "I have a cross in the bathroom."
Marsha never met Akeem, but she knew what happened. To memorialize the little boy, she hung a cross in the bathroom - one her own little boy created.
Then Marsha invited Deidra inside and gave her space to grieve. Deidra walked through the kitchen - and into the bathroom where her son was killed.
"He was standing right here, and I was standing next to him," said Deidra. "I haven't been in this house since it happened."
She was filled with emotions.
"All of my emotions from me raising him up, until he passed," said Deidra. "It all comes back."
Akeem's death was another in a series of killings that have made headlines in which children were the victims, and teens doing the shooting. Joseph Serrano, then 19, and a then-15-year-old are charged in the shooting death of Akeem. Both pleaded not guilty.
The younger teen accused of killing Akeem, was released from custody pending trial despite the murder charge – and has two other arrests in his past for stolen cars. Serrano is in jail awaiting his trial.
The younger teen is being charged as a juvenile - which worries Deidra.
"From everything I gathered, this boy's going to get five years," said Deidra. "My son is sitting in a box. This boy gets to be free in five years."
She is also concerned the boy may not be convicted, and she said she is concerned because the 15-year-old was released from jail pending trial.
The CBS 2 Investigators obtained internal Cook County Juvenile Court records for a rare look inside a system shrouded in secrecy.
From 2011 to 2019, the most recent year tracked, CBS 2 found a 65% percent decrease in arrests - dropping from 25,961 down to 8,952. Only about half those 2019 cases were recommend for prosecution, and only 5% of those juveniles were sentenced to serve time.
"I think juveniles should be accountable," said Deidra. "There should be more laws set in place for them, instead of just sending them on their way with a smack on the wrist."
Deidra also thinks victims and their families become statistics lost in the system without real justice.
"I don't think that the justice system is set for people that lose people," said Deidra. "I don't get to hug my son. I sit every night and I cry trying to figure out what my son, what his life would have been like. My son can't give me grandkids. He can't date. I can't meet his first girl."
Statement from a spokesperson for Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation
"Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation is a 55-year-old not for profit community development corporation. Our mission is centered around the community engaged development for and by neighborhood residents. We are committed to providing high quality affordable housing and fostering safe neighborhoods.
"Any loss of life to violence is senseless. The loss of a child is something no one should experience. We remain committed to our work in providing safe, affordable housing to our residents, and remain deeply saddened for Ms. Misters on the senseless loss Akeem and hope that they receive the justice they deserve."