Teenage Boy Gunned Down In Marquette Park In Possible Gang-Related Shooting
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Police are searching for the person who shot and killed a 14-year-old boy in the Marquette Park neighborhood.
The deadly shooting comes as city and church leaders on Friday will be encouraging people to put down their guns.
The Cook County Medical Examiner identified the victim as 14-year-old Kevin Diaz. He was shot around 10:15 on Thursday night, when the shooter opened fire from inside a vehicle.
"We just lost everything," his cousin Grisel Hernandez said. "Our happiness, knowing that he was always going to be there for us when we needed him, and just knowing the fact that we're not going to have another family member with us."
Neighbor and friend Trayvon Clark was in his house when heard the sound of gunfire Thursday night near the corner of 64th Street and Francisco Avenue..
"All I heard was six shots. Looked out the window, I just seen this dude running," Clark said.
When he went outside, he soon realized it was his friend Kevin Diaz who had been shot
"It was very emotional. I mean, nobody wants to see their child or friend laying there. It's not something people could just deal with," Clark said.
Diaz was struck at least three times, and collapsed on the sidewalk. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the shooting was gang-related, but Gerardo Valencia said his friend, a freshman at Sarah Goode STEM Academy, was a happy-go-lucky kid who was looking forward to his upcoming 15th birthday.
"Honestly, look at who you're killing. You're killing innocent kids," Valencia said. "There's other gang-bangers that do a lot of crime, and everything. You don't see pretty much anything happen to them. Most of the things that happen is to innocent kids."
While police work on the case, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, faith leaders, and community activists will be rallying against violence on Friday night in a "take back the streets" event.
The mayor will join area residents along Martin Luther King Drive to help make that street, between 26th and 47th streets, safer.
