A 14-year-old girl shot and killed another 14-year-old girl because of an argument over a boy, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said today as murder charges were filed.
The gun used to kill Endia Martin had been stolen from a car on April 13, McCarthy said, adding that two other people, including a 24-year-old uncle of the suspect, face charges as police investigate how the girl got the gun.
"What would have been, under any other circumstance, probably a fistfight between 14-year-old girls, because they were fighting over a boy, turned into a murder," McCarthy told reporters. "You introduce a firearm and you have a murder."
The superintendent took the opportunity to yet again criticize Illinois gun laws. He noted that the gun used in the slaying was legally owned and legally stored in a car when it was stolen.
"There was a legal gun that became an illegal gun," he said, saying state law should be changed to require guns to be kept more securely.
He said that one of the suspects facing charges may have brought the gun to the scene "because there was going to be a fight," and the other suspect then may have tried to get rid of it.
The 14-year-old girl who is charged in the case was arrested about 4:50 p.m. Monday, about 20 minutes after the shooting, police said in a news release Monday. She pulled the gun from her waistband and fled the scene before the arrest.
Endia's stepfather, Kent Kennedy, said Endia and the suspect had been feuding on Facebook. "They had words and she gunned our daughter down. For what? What reason would another girl gun down another child?
"It's senseless," he added. "Kids are dying so young nowadays. It's senseless. Parents shouldn't have to bury no child."
Kennedy said the family recently moved Endia from one school to another closer to home to keep her safe. Endia was killed about half a mile from her South Side home.
"No place in Chicago is safe for teenagers nowadays," he said. "No place is safe."
Endia was walking home from Tilden Career Community Academy, where she was a freshman, when another girl approached and opened fire at a group of girls around 4:30 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of West Garfield Boulevard, according to police.
Endia was hit in the back and was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A second girl, 16, was shot in the arm and taken to St. Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center, where her condition was stabilized, police said.
Police said there was a confrontation involving a group of teenagers before the shooting. Endia's stepfather said a girl from another school walked up and fired at a group of girls on the sidewalk in front of a three-story frame home.
Endia collapsed to the ground while the other girls scattered, including the wounded 16-year-old girl who ran behind the home, witnesses told WGN-TV.
Endia was "14 years old, beautiful, nice spirit, active in sports," Kennedy said outside the emergency room at Comer. "She loved music, loved to dance."
"No child needs to be gunned down like a dog in the street. Nobody, period," he said.*
Addressing the shooter and witnesses, he added: "This is not going to go away. . .We are not going to rest until you are prosecuted to the fullest. You, the people who assisted you, the crowd that walked over with the person with the gun – you're all involved and you're all guilty."
Endia and the 16-year-old girl were among at least seven people shot in the city late Monday and early Tuesday morning.
So far this year, more than 50 children 16 or younger have been shot in Chicago, according to a Tribune analysis.
Monday's shooting comes little more than a week after five children, ranging in age from 11 to 15, were shot and wounded in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side. The children had been playing at a park near an elementary school and were walking home when a car pulled up and someone inside opened fire, police said.
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#sectio.../p2p-80041443/
The gun used to kill Endia Martin had been stolen from a car on April 13, McCarthy said, adding that two other people, including a 24-year-old uncle of the suspect, face charges as police investigate how the girl got the gun.
"What would have been, under any other circumstance, probably a fistfight between 14-year-old girls, because they were fighting over a boy, turned into a murder," McCarthy told reporters. "You introduce a firearm and you have a murder."
The superintendent took the opportunity to yet again criticize Illinois gun laws. He noted that the gun used in the slaying was legally owned and legally stored in a car when it was stolen.
"There was a legal gun that became an illegal gun," he said, saying state law should be changed to require guns to be kept more securely.
He said that one of the suspects facing charges may have brought the gun to the scene "because there was going to be a fight," and the other suspect then may have tried to get rid of it.
The 14-year-old girl who is charged in the case was arrested about 4:50 p.m. Monday, about 20 minutes after the shooting, police said in a news release Monday. She pulled the gun from her waistband and fled the scene before the arrest.
Endia's stepfather, Kent Kennedy, said Endia and the suspect had been feuding on Facebook. "They had words and she gunned our daughter down. For what? What reason would another girl gun down another child?
"It's senseless," he added. "Kids are dying so young nowadays. It's senseless. Parents shouldn't have to bury no child."
Kennedy said the family recently moved Endia from one school to another closer to home to keep her safe. Endia was killed about half a mile from her South Side home.
"No place in Chicago is safe for teenagers nowadays," he said. "No place is safe."
Endia was walking home from Tilden Career Community Academy, where she was a freshman, when another girl approached and opened fire at a group of girls around 4:30 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of West Garfield Boulevard, according to police.
Endia was hit in the back and was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A second girl, 16, was shot in the arm and taken to St. Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center, where her condition was stabilized, police said.
Police said there was a confrontation involving a group of teenagers before the shooting. Endia's stepfather said a girl from another school walked up and fired at a group of girls on the sidewalk in front of a three-story frame home.
Endia collapsed to the ground while the other girls scattered, including the wounded 16-year-old girl who ran behind the home, witnesses told WGN-TV.
Endia was "14 years old, beautiful, nice spirit, active in sports," Kennedy said outside the emergency room at Comer. "She loved music, loved to dance."
"No child needs to be gunned down like a dog in the street. Nobody, period," he said.*
Addressing the shooter and witnesses, he added: "This is not going to go away. . .We are not going to rest until you are prosecuted to the fullest. You, the people who assisted you, the crowd that walked over with the person with the gun – you're all involved and you're all guilty."
Endia and the 16-year-old girl were among at least seven people shot in the city late Monday and early Tuesday morning.
So far this year, more than 50 children 16 or younger have been shot in Chicago, according to a Tribune analysis.
Monday's shooting comes little more than a week after five children, ranging in age from 11 to 15, were shot and wounded in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side. The children had been playing at a park near an elementary school and were walking home when a car pulled up and someone inside opened fire, police said.
http://my.chicagotribune.com/#sectio.../p2p-80041443/