Boy, 15, Killed In South Deering Shooting
(STMW) --A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed in the South Deering neighborhood on the Far South Side Friday night, the Sun-Times is reporting.
Deon Gilbert was walking in the 10400 block of South Bensley about 10:45 p.m. when a dark-colored minivan pulled up and the driver shot him in the abdomen, police and the Cook County medical examiner's office said.
Gilbert, of the 8100 block of South Evans, was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where he later died, authorities said.
His mother, Ida Harris, said her son was shot while walking to a gas station at 103rd and Torrence with his friend, also 15. That's when a minivan pulled up and fired one shot, hitting Deon in the abdomen, Harris said.
He died on the operating table at Comer, she said.
"I'm at a loss for words," Harris, 45, said on Saturday. "This is just baffling and I want justice. I need to find out why they did this."
Harris said her son, the youngest of four siblings, got into a fight outside Butler College Prep two weeks ago and had been suspended for six days. He went back to school on Tuesday.
She said she told police to look into whether the two teens involved in that fight were involved in her son's murder.
Gilbert was a sophomore at Butler. "He played football for the school," his mom said. "He loved football. He wanted to play in college and become an architect."
Harris said she believes the shooting was gang-related but called her son "innocent."
"I just can't understand how this could happen to an innocent kid, a family oriented kid," Harris said.
She said the two were in constant communication.
"We talked all the time. Anytime he went anywhere he called me," Harris said.
When she received calls from her son's phone Friday night she assumed he wanted her to pick him up from his friend's house. But the voice on the other end was her son's friend, telling her her son was shot.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
