Boy, 15, Shot Dead In Marquette Park
UPDATED: Oct. 18, 2010 4:46 p.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) - A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed over the weekend while riding his bike with friends in the Southwest Side's Marquette Park neighborhood, less than a block from his home.
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The shooting happened at 8:25 p.m. Sunday in the 2500 block of West Lithuanian Plaza Court, according to a report from police News Affairs. Officers responded to a call of shots fired, and when they got to the scene, they discovered the victim on the sidewalk, according to police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer.
Cornell Henderson, of the 6800 block of South Campbell Avenue, was found shot multiple times and pronounced dead at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 9:08 p.m., according to a Cook County Medical Examiner's office spokesman. He suffered a gunshot wound to the back.
Sources say Henderson had just moved into his home a few months ago with his family.
Neighbors described the sound of gunfire that came from a group of people walking down the street.
"It was a lot of shooting. You heard a good 15, 20 shots," said Lashonda Davis, who lives across the street from the scene of the shooting.
Alicia Carter was just down the street in her home, when she heard the gunfire and saw the aftermath.
"I heard a lot of screaming; a lot of yelling. I stay right on 67th and Campbell," Carter said. "The next thing you know, it's that whole crime scene. Everything's blocked off and stuff, and it was like, real scary."
Witness say the shooters were on foot, simply walking down the street when they opened fire.
"It was three different guns, three different types of shooting," said Davis.
Needra Shelton points to the bullet that hit her building.
"They knocked a piece of the concrete off," she said.
The ladies say it's unclear if the gunmen were aiming for Henderson because there were so many people out enjoying the nice weather.
"They could have shot anybody," said Shelton. "We could have seven or eight bodies, compared to how many people were out there. So it's a good thing it was only one person."
Community activist Andrew Holmes said he spoke to a witness, who didn't want to give his name out of fear of retaliation.
"He said he did see one or two of them with a revolver, and he said he started walking; he started walking fast, and he said by the time he got to the corner, that's when he turned around and heard the gunshots go off, and saw the young man fall off the bike."
The witness said there were at least two people with guns in a group of about a half dozen young people in the area where the shooting happened.
Shell casings from two different weapons were found at the scene, sources said.
Cornell Henderson's cousin, Joanna Cook said, "He was a good kid. I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened, what went wrong."
Another cousin of the victim, Carlos Haynes, says he'll miss Henderson's smile and his laugh. He can't explain why anyone would shoot the teen.
"He wasn't bothering nobody. He wasn't gang-banging. It not like he was causing trouble," said Haynes.
Henderson was a freshman at Chicago Vocational Career Academy, Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman Monique Bond said. Counselors were there Monday to comfort his friends. Friends say he loved sports and music.
No one is in custody. Police have not determined what sparked the shooting, and they haven't said whether the shooting was gang-related.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and Dorothy Tucker, WBBM Newsradio 780, and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
