$10,000 Reward Offered For Solving 13-Year-Old Boy's Murder
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A $10,000 reward is now being offered in hopes of finding the gunman who shot and killed Darius Brown, 13, as he played basketball earlier this week.
St. Sabina Church is offering $5,000 for information leading to the killer, along with $1,000 each from Crime Stoppers, the group No Guns No Violence, Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) and two unidentified concerned citizens.
St. Sabina pastor the Rev. Michael Pfleger spoke out on Thursday about the murder and the epidemic of youth violence.
"I am so sick and tired of hearing people afraid to come forward and talk, because they're afraid of what the shooter may do," he said. "It's time to make the shooter afraid of the community. It's time to make the shooter understand you can't do this in this neighborhood. I am not one that believes in prisons, but if you shoot, and if you kill our children, you've got to go to jail. You cannot shoot and kill, and go back home, sit up and watch TV and eat McDonald's."
Police have released a surveillance photo of a late-model white sedan heading south on State Street, and Wentworth Area Violent Crimes Sgt. Shawn McGavock said several people have told detectives that they believe the shots were fired from that car.
There may have been two people in the car, believed to be a 2007 model or later, and either a compact or mid-size car.
McGavock said his detectives still believe that Darius was not the intended target. He also said he does not believe this shooting was related to another recently at 43rd and State, in which someone shot a man as he smoked a cigarette.
The victim's mother, Stephanie Brown, attended a vigil in her son's honor at the park on Thursday night.
"We've got to stop this violence amongst our young. We're going to have a whole generation of young men that's just wiped out," Brown said.
