Sources: Murdered 9-Year-Old May Have Been Lured Into Alley
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee may have been lured to his death in an alley, CBS 2 has learned.
Sources say witnesses told investigators the boy appeared to be lured from a nearby park into the alley by a group using a basketball, reports CBS 2's Mai Martinez.
Sources also say investigators have all but ruled out the possibility that Tyshawn was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead they believe he was targeted, possibly because of gang ties to family members.
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Clutching a photo of her son, a grief-stricken Karla Lee, Tyshawn's mother, once again pleaded for help finding his killer.
"He didn't hurt nobody," she said. "I don't know why this happened."
But sources say Tyshawn's family may know more than they're letting on. That's because his father is a known gang member and isn't co-operating with police.
Investigators are also looking into several possibilities that Tyshawn was targeted because of gang ties to his family. Karla Lee denied any gang connections within her family.
Since his murder, Tyshawn's family and friends have pleaded with people to put down the guns, but in a photo we're choosing not to show, Tyshawn's mother posed with a gun held to her lips as if to blow imaginary smoke off the barrel.
Tonight though, as the memorial to Tyshawn grows, the focus of the community was finding his killer.
"How can you humanly do that," said Steven Ivy, who was handing out flyers asking for information. "You've got to be cold. Your heart got to be stone you know to pull the trigger while this 9-year-old is begging for his life."
Ivy says Tyshawn's murder needs to be a wake-up call.
"We want to complain about things, but we don't want to speak on it," Ivy said. "We don't want to take no action, but if it was the police that shot one of us, this whole neighborhood, this the whole community, every black person would be out rioting, marching, upset about it, but we not upset that one of our own got killed by the hands of one of our own."
Police knocked on doors, let sirens wail as they flooded the area with squad cars and drew 100 people to a community meeting on the murder Monday of nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee.
Police Commander Rodney Wilson said, "If you know something, say something," and then threw down the microphone. Pastor Kenyatta Smith reminded those who attended that it is their children who are dying. Activist Andrew Holmes, whose daughter was murdered in Indianapolis earlier this year, said he knows the pain Tyshawn's family is enduring. Then, Tyshawn's mother Karla Lee spoke, tears streaming down her face.
Lee said her son always told her to "be strong, mama," but she struggled for words as she pleaded for the public's help.
"I just want justice for her son," she said, sobbing. "If anyone knows anything please let the police know. Please. He didn't deserve this. He was my only son."
Holmes said there is no way to justify the murder and warned the killers that even though they ran, they won't be able to hide for long.
The reward for information leading to the arrest of Tyshawn's killer is now at $20,000, but despite all the pleas for people to turn the gunman in, Chicago Police say no one is in custody.
