Murder charges filed in shooting of 9-year-old Chicago boy

Friday afternoon, 27-year-old Corey Morgan of south suburban Lansing was ordered held without bail on first-degree murder charges stemming from the shooting. The third gang member stayed behind on the playground, prosecutors said. Morgan was able to post the required ten-percent of the bond, after his girlfriend put up $100,000 from a settlement she won in a lawsuit against a hospital.

“All three are in the same gang”, McCarthy said.

When asked if Tyshawn’s dad was helpful in the investigation, the top cop said, “Not at all”.

“We’re pretty sure that this is not an accident”, said McCarthy, claiming the boy was targeted because of his “family relationship with a member of a gang”.

They were stopped in a auto on 87th Street in nearby Evergreen Park. He also expressed frustration with police, saying investigators seemed more interested in him than in finding who fatally shot Tyshawn.

To the suspect still at large, McCarthy warned: “We are going to catch you, we’re definitely going to catch him”.

An autopsy report said the fourth-grader received a graze wound to the upper back, one superficial wound to the forearm, and the fatal gunshot wound to the head. He was arrested on an unrelated gun charge and was released on bail earlier this week.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who has called the killing “probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime” he had seen in his 35-year career, will hold a news conference about the charges at 10 a.m. Friday at Area South police headquarters. The boy had defensive wounds as if he tried to block one of the gun shots, they said. McCarthy said that the police still needed to work out details of what happened next, such as who pulled the trigger and who drove the getaway vehicle. In a pending case, he was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon.

That wasn’t the case surrounding Tyshawn’s shooting, however, with McCarthy lauding those who did come forward to help with the case. “This was clearly not a case of ‘no snitching, ‘” McCarthy said. Police say he was in violation of his bond when he was taken into custody earlier this week.

Police, who did not publicly identify the suspect, have said the crime was linked to a rivalry between Lee’s father, a suspected gang member, and another group.

The Chicago Tribune was the first to interview Tyshawn’s father, Pierre Stokes, after his son was killed.

“We’re going to go destroy that gang now, and the rival gang…we’re going to assign resources that will ensure that neither one of those gangs can raise its head again”.