Second teen charged in 2024 mass shooting that left 3 dead on Chicago's South Side

A 16-year-old boy was charged this week in a mass shooting that left three people dead in Chicago's West Chatham community in 2024.

He was the second person charged in the shooting.

The teen was charged with three counts each of first-degree murder and six more murder-related counts, as well as one count each of armed robbery and attempted murder.

On Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024, four people were shot inside a residence in the 8000 block of South Vincennes Avenue. Amere P. Deese, 14; Ladeverett West-Ringgold, 20; Randy Graham, 36, were all killed in the shooting.

A 16-year-old boy was wounded in the shooting.

The teen most recently charged in the shooting was arrested by Chicago police and the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force on Wednesday morning in the 6700 block of South Loomis Boulevard, police said.

The teen was the second person charged in the shooting. Antonio Velasco, then 16, was arrested in March 2024 and charged as an adult with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

At the time, then-police Chief of Detectives Antoinette Ursitti said Velasco had been welcomed into the home as the acquaintance of a young man who was friends with the family. After an "altercation" inside the home, Velasco shot all four people who were in the same room with him, and fled the scene.

Cook County prosecutors said the four victims were friends who would often hang out together at Ringgold's house, and were in his bedroom at the time of the shooting, playing with a rifle. At some point, the rifle was placed on the ground behind a TV in the bedroom.

Around 5 p.m. that day, Ringgold's mother and Deese's sister saw Velasco arrive at the home with a then-13-year-old boy who was raised in his home as his brother, and they started hanging out with Ringgold and his friends in the bedroom, smoking marijuana.

A couple hours later, Velasco left the bedroom and came back with a 9mm handgun with an extended clip, and told his brother to pick up the rifle, prosecutors said. Velasco then shot all four victims and ran off with the boy who had come to the house with him, prosecutors said.

Police did not specify what role the now-16-year-old second defendant had in the shooting.