Suspect charged in deadly shooting of 2 high school classmates in Chicago Loop last year
CHICAGO (CBS) — A Chicago man has been charged in connection to the deadly shooting of two high school classmates who were on their lunch break downtown last year.
Tommie Coleman, 22, was arrested on Wednesday in the 5700 block of North Mason Avenue, after he was identified as one of three people who shot and killed 16-year-old Robert Boston and 17-year-old Monterio Williams on Jan. 26, 2024, under the Washington/Wabash CTA station in the Loop.
Coleman has been charged with two felony counts of first-degree murder, and one count each of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated discharge of a firearm from an occupied vehicle, and possession of a weapon by a felon. He was also cited for not registering a weapon.
At Coleman's first court appearance on Saturday, Cook County prosecutors said Boston and Williams were childhood friends, and had a history of disputes with Coleman and his two accomplices - one of whom died in June 2024, and the other who has not yet been charged in the case. One of Coleman's accomplices also was a classmate of Boston and Williams at Innovations High School in the Loop.
Prosecutors said the victims left school at Innovations High School around 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2024, and were walking in front of the elevators of the Washington/Wabash station when Coleman and his two accomplices, all wearing masks, pulled up in a dark blue Infiniti SUV, got out of the vehicle, and started shooting.
Coleman and his accomplices kept firing for approximately 15 seconds as people in the area ran for cover and the two victims fell to the ground. Williams was shot in his right hip and chest, and Boston was shot in the chest. Both were taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where they died.
After the shooting, the three gunmen got back in the Infiniti and drove off. Various surveillance cameras and license plate readers were able to track the Infiniti along the Stevenson Expressway and DuSable Lake Shore Drive, before the three gunmen eventually made their way to south suburban Dolton and Calumet City, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the Infiniti had been stolen from a parking garage at the University of Chicago four days before the shooting. The license plate had been replaced with plates stolen from another vehicle parked in a University of Chicago Medical Center parking garage two days before the shooting.
Detectives later got a tip naming one of Coleman's accomplices as one of the shooters, and pointing investigators to an Instagram account with video of the three gunmen inside the Infiniti. The video was posted to the accomplices' Instagram stories about 20 minutes after the shooting, and showed the three suspects singing the verse of a song referring to wearing masks and riding in a stolen car before getting out and shooting at someone.
At least one witness recognized both of Coleman's accomplices from the Instagram video, and after seeing Coleman with them in multiple videos posted on Instagram and YouTube, the witness identified Coleman and the two others as the shooters.
Detectives also were able to compare the videos on Instagram and YouTube to surveillance video from Innovations High School, where one of Coleman's accomplices was a student, and obtained footage of him leaving the school about 90 minutes before the shooting.
Surveillance cameras on the CTA helped detectives track that accomplice as he rode the CTA to State and Roosevelt, where he walked to a parking lot on Canal Street and got into the Infiniti SUV later used in the shooting.
Coleman was arrested on Wednesday. It's unclear if or when his surviving accomplice might face charges.
