Two teenage boys—Malik McNeese and Stevie Jefferson were shot to death outside a home in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side Tuesday afternoon, and a stray bullet also injured a woman inside her home.
McNeese, 16, and Jefferson, 17, were on a sidewalk about noon in the 3400 block of West Fulton, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
That’s when a black SUV pulled up and someone inside opened fire, hitting the younger boy in the head, back and arm; and the older boy in the head, according to police.
McNeese, of the 3200 block of West Walnut, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:20 p.m., authorities said.
Jefferson, of the 3200 block of West Maple, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
A stray bullet also smashed through the front door of a home on the block, hitting a 65-year-old woman in the leg. She was taken to Mount Sinai in good condition, police said.
McNeese was a sophomore at Urban Prep Academy’s West Campus, located in the University Village neighborhood, according to an email sent by Urban Prep CEO Tim King to the school community. He is the fifth student or alumnus of Urban Prep to be killed since the start of 2016, and the second in less than a month.
On Facebook, a woman who said she is McNeese’s mother wrote that her son “was no gang member,” but befriended the “wrong people.” She described McNeese as “respectful, honest, happy.”
King said McNeese’s mother asked that her son be buried in his school uniform.
“Let our grief be tempered by the knowledge that the young men who graduate from Urban Prep, with a diploma in one hand and a college admissions letter in the other, are up to the challenge of changing our world for good,” King said.
“We are humbled by that request and we will honor it; just as we honor Malik McNeese, a child robbed of his life and future.”
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire