A 16-year-old boy has been arrested for the death of 311 operator Yvonne Nelson, shot last month outside a Starbucks near police headquarters at 35th and State.
Yvonne Nelson | Facebook
The boy was arrested by Chicago police and the U.S. Marshals Service acting on a warrant issued last month, police said. The charges first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.
The boy was 15 on May 20, when the murder was committed, and will initially appear in juvenile court. Authorities are trying to have him charged as an adult.
The boy has a criminal history, including arrests for several armed robberies, and was on probation at the time of the shooting, police said.
Police said Nelson was leaving Starbucks after buying coffee, when the teen got out of a car a block away and started chasing a man, a documented gang member, down the street with a gun.
At the corner of 36th and State streets, the man started walking north and the teen fired eight shots, according to police.
Nelson, 49, was not the intended target, police said, but she suffered a gunshot wound to the chest about 3:52 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Nelson, of the 4900 block of South Vincennes, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where she died at 4:33 p.m., authorities said.
The Bronzeville resident had been a communications operator for 311 City Services since 2002, according to the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire