Across the street from a playground and the building that used to house Wentworth Elementary School, a memorial sits against a brick wall near a parking lot, commemorating the life of 19-year-old Marcus Rush.
Rush was shot about 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 28 near the intersection of West 70th and South Morgan streets in Englewood. He died a few hours later at Advocate Christ Medical Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
The memorial—a mess of stuffed bears, empty liquor bottles, smashed tea lights, and posters scrawled with farewells from loved ones—sits across the street from one of the many buildings left behind after the CPS school closings.
Police said Rush had no documented gang affiliations, but did have a prior criminal record. However, to 29-year-old Tasha Henery, he was “just a sweet little boy.”
Henery, who lives in the building next to Rush’s memorial, was one of the neighbors that called 911 the night he was shot.
“I had just came in the house…and I heard the gunshots, and I heard my neighbor say, ‘Go get my momma,’ so that made me run out to check on her and I see him laying there,” Henery said.
Although she said what she knew about the incident was “hearsay,” she thinks Rush got shot across the street, then ran to his car in the nearby lot, where he collapsed.
“And I was talking to him like, ‘Hold on baby, hold on, they coming, they coming’,” Henery said.
According to Henery, Rush would come to the area to see friends. She said he was very sweet and respectful, and had a baby of his own.
Henery, who has six kids herself, said she loves her neighborhood, but does not feel safe anymore after the fatal shooting.
“I’m not threatened by these guys, it’s the other people that come over here,” she said.
Contributing reporting by Jessica Koscielniak