2 questioned after 2 teens found shot to death on Far S. Side
Detectives on Monday were questioning two people in the shooting deaths of two teenage boys whose bodies were found in a Far South Side field over the weekend.
The mother of one of the boys received an anonymous text message on Sunday that led police to a wooded area near 131st and Rhodes where their bodies were located late Sunday night, CPD Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio said Monday at a news conference.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office identified one of the boys as 17-year-old Darnelle Flowers, of Roseland.
The mother of 16-year-old Raysuan Turner told a Chicago Sun-Times reporter that her son was the other victim. She declined to comment further Monday afternoon.
Both teens were found shortly before midnight Sunday near 131st Street and South Rhodes Avenue, Chicago police and the medical examiner’s office said.
They were pronounced dead at the scene, which is about a block from Golden Gate Park, according to authorities. It was not known when they were shot, but autopsies performed Monday found both were shot several times, and their deaths were ruled homicides.
Both boys had been reported missing by their mothers within the previous 48 hours, Riccio said.
The police department issued a missing person alert for Turner less than eight hours before he was found. He was last seen Friday in the 10100 block of South Indiana.
Flowers, who went by “Bibby,” was also last seen on Friday in the 11300 block of South Stewart, police said. His missing person alert was issued just minutes after Turner’s.
Flowers also frequented the area around 111th and Indiana, as well as the Altgeld Gardens public housing projects — just blocks from where he and Turner were found.
Flowers had been arrested by Chicago police seven times on charges related to weapons, carjacking and battery. He was previously held at the Cook County juvenile detention center and was a documented gang member, a police source said.
His most recent arrest occurred in March.
Turner had no criminal history. Some possessions were missing from the boys. “There’s a couple different things going around,” Riccio said. “We haven’t ruled out the potential for robbery as one of the motives.”
Anti-violence activist Andrew Holmes said it was Turner’s mother who received the message detailing exactly where her son was. Riccio said she was with Area South detectives when she received it.
Holmes said Turner’s mother was receiving anonymous messages “off and on” in the hours before the two teens were found.
“It was probably just somebody who wanted to speak out and be anonymous. That was very helpful,” Holmes said.