Damijwan Bonds, who had just recently moved back to Chicago from Florida, was shot to death Sunday night in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side.
The 18-year-old suffered gunshot wounds to both legs about 9 p.m. in the 5400 block of South Damen, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
He later showed up at Holy Cross Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:59 p.m., authorities said.
Bonds originally attended Dunbar Vocational High School before moving to Tampa, Florida. He graduated from a Tampa high school earlier this summer, then returned to Chicago. Police said he was living about three blocks away from where he was shot.
The circumstances of the shooting weren’t immediately known, according to police, who are conducting a homicide investigation.
His uncle, Keith Townsend, wrote on Facebook: “Damijwan was loved. I remember meeting him for the first time. He was one of those kids that you said to yourself, ‘Now he’s not boring. He’ll be a man other men will follow.’
“I’m personally asking myself, how much more can or could I do? Will it even make a difference. I called my mom just to vent. What can we do to change the hearts of these young men? What can we do to give them a sense of hope and purpose?”
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire and Homicide Watch Chicago