Two gunmen shot a 14-year-old boy several times Friday night as he stood on his porch, leaving the him to die in the front hallway of his Humboldt Park home, authorities said.
Two male shooters opened fire about 11:50 p.m. in the 2400 block of West Augusta Boulevard, striking the boy multiple times in the chest, Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer said.
Immediately following the shooting, a car sped down the street in reverse and took off, a neighbor said.
It appeared the boy managed to take a couple of steps before collapsing. When paramedics arrived, he was lying just inside the home, bleeding from several bullet wounds, police said. He died at the scene.
Police found blood on the front steps and more than half a dozen shell casings on the sidewalk.
The high school freshman had been talking on a cellphone in front of his home just moments before shots rang out, his stepmother said.
The shooting may have been gang-related, police sources said. Family and friends on the scene, however, said the victim avoided gangs and spent his free time listening to music and riding his bicycle.
The boy would have turned 15 on Tuesday, said his stepmother, whose name - like that of her stepson - the Tribune is withholding pending notification of additional family members.
"Now he's not even going to see his 15th birthday," his tearful stepmother said.
On the sidwalk near the crime scene, the father of one of the boy's friends sobbed as he paced near a group of somber teenagers.
asege@tribune.com
Twitter: @AdamSege
14-year-old boy killed on West Side
This article
14-year-old boy killed on West Side
can be opened in url
http://newsmassager.blogspot.com/2013/01/14-year-old-boy-killed-on-west-side.html
14-year-old boy killed on West Side
