Suspect In Custody In Murder Of 2 Teenage Boys In South Chicago This Past Weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A suspect was in custody Wednesday afternoon in the murder of two teenage boys in the South Chicago neighborhood last weekend, police said.
As CBS 2's Steven Graves reported, the man is suspected in the killing of Charles Riley, 16, and Jasean Francis, 17, in the 7900 block of South Luella Avenue this past Saturday.
No one had been officially charged in the murder as of Wednesday afternoon, police said.
The 19-year-old man being questioned had been sentenced to 18 months' probation in December 2019 on an unlawful use of a weapon charge the year before, and remained on probation at the time of the murders, sources said.
The probation was to end in June of next year.
The shooting happened around 5:10 p.m. that day.
The older boy was shot in the back, chest, and left hand, while the younger boy was shot in the back and left flank, police said. Both were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where they were pronounced dead, police said.
"These individuals were with their friend. They'd just gone to a mall. They know the neighborhood. They don't ever go out to the neighborhood because it's so dangerous," Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said Sunday.
But on that one occasion, the boys asked just that once if they could go down to the store and buy some candy, and when they were almost back at the gateway of their home, a gunman ran up and shot and killed them for no reason, Deenihan said.
Police on Sunday released images of a suspected gunman in the incident.
Altogether this past weekend, more than 100 people were shot in Chicago and 13 were killed.