By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times
Urban Prep Academy student Yuri Hardy was fatally shot while leaving a dance competition in Austin on Wednesday night.
The 19-year-old was the fourth Urban Prep student or alumnus to be shot to death in Chicago since the start of the year, according to a letter sent to the school community from the network’s founder and president, Tim King.
Hardy was walking south in the 100 block of North Central just before 8 p.m. Wednesday when he was shot, according to police. He lived in the 5000 block of West Congress, about a mile and a half from where he was shot.
He was unresponsive when officers arrived and was pronounced dead at 1:14 a.m. Thursday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. No one was in custody for the shooting as of Friday evening.
“It is difficult for me to comprehend that I’m writing yet another letter to you about another senseless act of violence against a member of our community,” King wrote.
Hardy was described as “a fun-loving young man who enjoyed being with his friends and family.”
“While we mourn the loss of Mr. Hardy and are infuriated by the disregard for life that resulted in his death, we cannot be diverted from our work,” King added. “We must not allow these data to become their destiny.”
Hardy was a senior at the school’s West campus, located in the University Village neighborhood. After college, he had plans to be an entrepreneur, King said.
Hardy’s family could not be reached Friday evening, though a man identifying himself as Hardy’s cousin wrote on Facebook: “He wasn’t a drug dealer, Gangbanger or Thug.”
Another man, who said he was Hardy’s brother, wrote: “We gotta rebuild our community running away from it not gon change nothing and neither is vengeance I love you Lil bro.”