Joshua Martinez / Photo from Twitter
Joshua Martinez‘ was an “extraordinarily charming” person who became involved in gangs at a young age, a former teacher said.
Martinez, 20, was fatally shot about 1 a.m. Sunday during a fight in the 3000 block of West 53rd Place, authorities said. Prosecutors claim 17-year-old Angel Jara shot Martinez multiple times during a dispute over money.
Martinez’ former teachers at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy said he had been involved in gangs, what they called “neighborhood extracurricular activities,” at a young age.
Despite the alleged gang affiliations and warnings that Martinez and his brother were disruptive in class, mathematics instructor Ty Martinez remembered him as “extraordinarily charming.”
“Both boys were, I’d say euphemistically, high energy,” said Ty Martinez, who is now employed by Evanston/Skokie District 65. “They had a reputation at school, but I found them both extremely witty.”
Ty Martinez only encountered Joshua Martinez outside of class, but Saucedo was small enough where those interactions meant meeting the entire family at parent-teacher conferences.
“I think it’s fair to say Joshua was a little bit angrier, maybe just testier than [his brother],” Ty Martinez said. “He just had a little more of an edge to his attitude. He was more serious than his brother.”
As a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, Martinez said he often hears about student deaths. He said when teachers know their students are involved in gangs there is a constant fear they won’t survive.
Ty Martinez said he first felt “superficially sad” when he learned from other teachers at Saucedo that a former student had been fatally shot. When news really sunk in, he found himself thinking of the boys’ mother and what he remembered of her evident concern for their school lives.
“It’s just such a great shame that as educators we’re tasked with seeing, excavating, catalyzing the potential of young human beings,” Martinez said. “Problems that are beyond us, that we don’t really have any control over, it feels sometimes like they conspire to rob us of those potentials. Even momentary contact with any of these children is filled with promise.”