Man Charged With Killing Columbia College Student
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A 26-year-old man has been charged in the fatal drive-by shooting of a Columbia College student in the Bronzeville neighborhood earlier this week, while the victim was on his way to pick up a friend.
Friday morning, police announced Jerome Brown, of the 7400 block of South Emerald Avenue, had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, after he was identified as the gunman who killed 19-year-old Kevin Ambrose.
Brown was ordered held without bond.
Ambrose was shot in the back Tuesday night, not far from the 47th Street station on the CTA Green Line. He lived about a block away, in the 4800 block of South Prairie Avenue, and had been going to pick up his friend, Michael Dye.
"'Michael call somebody, I can't breathe.' That's the final thing he said. He was coming to get me," Dye said earlier this week.
His mother said he was in the process of switching his major at Columbia College to criminal justice because he wanted to be a police officer.
"I followed the damn blueprint. My kid still got killed. What the hell am I supposed to do?" Ebony Ambrose said.
"His life was never turned the wrong way. Never," she added. "Whoever did this is just worthless. Don't kill my kid. Don't kill the good kids. If you feel life is whatever and you don't care kill your damn self. That's what they should do, stop killing the good kids. It hurts to know that he died with fear in his heart. He shouldn't have had to died like that. It hurts. It hurts like hell."
Chicago detectives tell CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez the suspect was identified by witnesses after he returned to the scene of the crime -- as police were there. He was later identified in a physical lineup and had gunshot residue on him.
"We caught the shooter," Det. Joel Keller said.
