FIELDHOUSE FIGHT TURNS FATAL
Video captures shots, screams from Garfield Pk. incident that leaves Marshall football player dead
A 15-year-old dead.
A 14-year-old wounded.
And a 13-year-old boy being questioned by police.
That was the tally Friday from a shooting outside the Garfield Park fieldhouse the night before.
Dozens of people were outside the fieldhouse when at least four gunshots rang out Thursday night, killing 15-year-old Kenwon Parker and injuring the 14-year-old boy.
Chicago police had been called to the park to break up a fight that started during a basketball tournament, authorities said. As police worked to disperse the crowd, someone opened fire.
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.
Parker was shot in the chest and pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital. He was a student at Marshall High School and a member of the football team.
“They took my baby,” his mother, Keyoner Westbrooks, told WGNNews outside the family’s West Side home. His birthday would have been this weekend. “Now I got to bury my son instead of celebrating his birthday.”
The 14-year-old was shot in the abdomen, police said. He was listed in serious condition at Stroger.
Police took a 13-year-old boy into custody after the shooting. He was still considered a “person of interest” — not a suspect — Friday afternoon as detectives continued to interview him, according to police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
The boy had a gun on him when he was taken into custody, but detectives were still trying to determine if it was the gun used in the shooting.
Sterling Tate, one of the referees at the tournament, said 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 fieldhouse.
The Chicago Park District issued a statement Friday. “The safety of our park guests is our top priority,” it read, adding that the district is “working closely with the Chicago Police Department as they investigate the events that took place outside the Garfield Park Fieldhouse.”
Three security guards worked Thursday night’s game, part of a league for teens ages 13-18, officials said.
A year ago, large fights broke out during the West Haven Safe Summer League championship game at the United Center. Nearly 10,000 people showed up, and the venue ultimately canceled the game out of public safety concerns.
In March 2017, another brawl broke out at the United Center after the McDonald’s All-American game.