13-year-old charged in connection with fatal Garfield Park shooting
Marshall football player killed, another teen injured in incident outside basketball tournament
A 13-year-old boy has been charged in connection with a shooting that left a teenager dead and another wounded outside the Garfield Park fieldhouse on Thursday.
The 13-year-old faces one juvenile count of aggravated use of a weapon by a person under 21, Chicago police officials said Saturday.
The shooting happened after a basketball tournament at the fieldhouse. Around 9:10 p.m., officers responded to a call of a large fight inside the park district facility in the first block of North Central Park Avenue, police said.
While officers broke up the fight and tried to disperse the crowd outside, shots were fired, police said.
Kenwon Parker, 15, was struck in the chest and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The Homan Square resident was a student and football player at Marshall High School.
Also, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the abdomen and taken to Stroger in serious condition, police said.
The 13-year-old was taken into custody after the shooting. Police said Saturday that the boy was charged because he was carrying a gun, but they’re still investigating who fired the fatal shots.
A video posted to Facebook — filmed by someone in a passing car — shows dozens of people milling about outside the Golden Dome in the first block of North Central Park around 9:10 p.m. Four shots can be heard before the person in the car ducks and the driver speeds off as people scream in fear.
Three security guards worked Thursday night’s game, part of a league for teens age 13-18, officials said.
Sterling Tate, one of the referees at the tournament, said Friday that the games were organized by volunteers.
“We give the kids that don’t have anything else these platforms, and then kids that have nothing to do with basketball ruin things,” Tate said, adding that it “seemed like there were 1,000 kids” outside the field house.
Area North detectives are conducting the homicide investigation.