Kevin Culverson / Photo from Chicago Police
Kevin Culverson has been charged with allegedly killing 15-year-old Cornelius “Cornbread” German during a dice game blocks from President Barack Obama’s Chicago home in April.
Culverson, 20, of the 700 block of East 50th Place, was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly firing a handgun into a crowd of people about 9:40 p.m. April 22, Chicago Police announced early Wednesday.
Cornelius had been playing dice with friends in the backyard of a home in the 5000 block of South Evans Avenue when he was fatally shot in the back, police and family said at the time.
The boy’s parents were en route to pick him up as shots rang out, family members told the Chicago Sun-Times.
When Cornelius was not waiting at a Walgreens at the corner of 51st Street and Cottage Grove Avenue as planned, annoyance shifted to apprehension — and eventually to grief, as police cars streamed into the area.
“I had this sinking gut feeling something wasn’t right,” said the boy’s mother, 42-year-old Timika Rutledge. “I saw a police officer. He said a little kid got shot. Somehow, I knew it was my baby. I went back there. I saw my baby on the ground in the grass. I saw his gym shoes and his jacket.”
Cornelius, of the 1000 block of West 51st Street, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The boy’s friends later told Rutledge that Cornelius was leaving the dice game in the backyard when he was shot and that he wasn’t the intended target, an account police could not confirm.
Culverson was scheduled to appear in bond court on Wednesday.
— Sun-Times Media Wire