Tyrone Lawson | Homicide Watch Chicago

Fatal shooting of Morgan Park student shines light on violence in city

John Carpenter — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:12:07 -0500

Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Thursday, January 17, 2013

Author/Byline: MICHAEL O’BRIEN ; mobrien@suntimes.com

High school sports are unique in the sports world. The teams are a direct representation of the communities they represent.

The Cubs are not from Chicago and most of the players do not live here. The same with the Bears and the Bulls, Derrick Rose excepted of course. There are some local kids at Illinois and Northwestern and UIC, but they come from too wide an area to represent any real community.

But Morgan Park and Simeon players are Chicago. They are a full, breathing representation of the neighborhoods they all live in, and the good and bad that comes with that.

Wednesday night at Chicago State University, the shooting death of Tyrone Lawson II, 17, a Morgan Park student, shined brighter than usual light into what that Chicago is like. A Chicago that many residents simply think of as unfamiliar street names on the crime blotter.

“Growing up in this city I’ve seen a whole lot of kids killed by gunfire,” Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin said. “I’ve lost a lot of friends.”

Irvin knew Lawson . He talked with him about the Simeon game just a few days ago. Every member of the team knew Lawsonas well.

“All of them knew Ty,” Irvin said. “They took it really hard. We didn’t practice today or do anything.”

But Lawson ’s death wasn’t a new experience for anyone on that team. They’ve all lost friends and acquaintances to violence, whether it was at a basketball game, on a walk to the store or the trip to school.

“It’s everywhere,” Irvin said. “It happens everywhere.”

Irvin said he isn’t worried about his team getting caught up in the violence.

“I have a bunch of good guys,” Irvin said. “They stay in the house and play video games.”

Good kids at New Trier and Schaumburg don’t have to stay inside and play video games to keep from getting shot. Those are very different communities.

Reporters, college coaches and recruiting analysts make frequent trips into the Chicago of Simeon and Morgan Park. There’s always some nervous joking about the metal detectors and all the police. The threat of violence just hangs in the air.

During my first year covering prep basketball for the Chicago Sun-Times, a melee after a game at Crane shook me pretty badly. I asked the Crane coach at the time, Anthony Longstreet, if it was hard for his players to concentrate on the game with everything going on around them. I asked how his players could play basketball in such a threatening atmosphere both in the gym and just outside.

Longstreet looked at me and laughed.

“This is their fun,” Longstreet said. “They face this every day, all day, everywhere. That basketball game may have been the only time all day they weren’t worried about it. They live here. You’re going to drive home to somewhere else. They aren’t.”

There isn’t a game time that will make things safer in Chicago. There isn’t a certain number of police or a gang-neutral venue that will change anything. Not until the city changes.

Brothers held without bond for allegedly murdering teen outside basketball game

John Carpenter — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:10:48 -0500

Chicago Sun-Times (IL) - Saturday, January 19, 2013

Author/Byline: TINA SFONDELES ; Staff Reporter

Two brothers were ordered held without bond Saturday for allegedly gunning down a 17-year-old boy outside a high school basketball game at Chicago State University.

Michael McNabb, 32, of the 11500 block of South Racine, and Stephen Gilbert, 29, of the 12400 block of South Harding in Alsip, are charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Tyrone Lawson II.

The men are brothers, their father said after their bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse Saturday.

Lawson , a Morgan Park High School student, was killed Wednesday night near a parking lot on the college campus after a basketball game between Morgan Park and Simeon Career Academy at 95th Street and King Drive, officials said.

Prosecutors said the teen never made it inside the game because he arrived late. He was talking to a group of girls outside when Gilbert allegedly rushed towards him. The group ran in different directions, and gunshots were heard.

Lawson was shot in the buttocks and back, police said. He collapsed and was found in a parking lot. Police soon put out a flash message for the alleged shooter, who witnesses said was wearing a white jacket and fled in a red Jeep.

Police curbed the Jeep and found Gilbert in the back seat, with McNabb driving, authorities said. The gun was found outside the passenger side window, records show. The gun and its ammunition matched the weapon that was used in the shooting, authorities said. Shell casings were also recovered and both men were identified in a photo lineup, police said.

Gilbert, who has a prior weapons conviction, is believed to have been the shooter and had gunshot residue on his left hand, prosecutors said.

McNabb was apparently at the game to pick up his young daughter, who was at the match, said Wallace “Gator” Bradley, a former gang enforcer-turned-“urban translator” and family friend.

Before the shooting, a fight broke out at the end of the game between a players from both teams, and Chicago Public Schools security quickly broke it up.

Bradley said the fight had nothing to do with the shooting: “This was a community thing that happened. The rivalry between Simeon and Morgan Park had nothing to do with the shooting incident.”

He also pleaded with Gangsters Disciple leaders to not retaliate the death in Morgan Park.

“They got a victim already. They’ve got the alleged shooters, supposedly who did it and that’s supposed to be all,” Bradley said. “They can stop the proliferation of shootings within the community so the people can feel safe.”

Mother thought teen son would be safe before killing outside basketball game

John Carpenter — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:08:48 -0500

Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago, IL) - Thursday, January 17, 2013

Author/Byline: JON SEIDEL, MICHAEL LANSU AND LEEANN SHELTON ; Staff Reporters

The mother of Tyrone Lawson II thought her only son would be safe at Chicago State University’s gym on the South Side.
If the 17-year-old Morgan Park High School student wanted to go somewhere she thought was dangerous, Pam Wright said she and his stepfather, Gregory Young, would put their foot down. And she said her son respected their views — he never sneaked off without permission.

But Chicago State’s gym was considered mutual ground for warring gangs, she said. Lawson had already been to two or three high school games there, and his mother and stepfather would pick him up when they ended. So they let him go to the game Wednesday, January 16, 2013 between high school basketball powerhouses Morgan Park and Simeon. And they waited at home for his call.

It never came.

Authorities said Lawson was fatally shot multiple times near a parking lot outside the gym. Wright and Young said they learned of the shooting when relatives contacted by authorities came to their door. Police arrested two people and recovered a weapon.

“There is no safe place,” Wright said in her living room Thursday morning as she spoke about her late son, who she added loved the outdoors and left behind “devastated” friends.

The shooting happened after the game around 9:20 p.m. near a parking lot outside the gym on the campus at 95th Street and King Drive, according to a Chicago police source.

A fight broke out at the end of the game between a couple of players from both teams, and Chicago Public Schools security quickly broke it up.

CPS routinely use CSU facilities as a “neutral setting” for student athletic events, according to a statement from Chicago State.

The university said in its statement it was “deeply saddened by the tragic shooting death” and noted it was the first of its kind on the campus.

“Arrests have been made and university officials are awaiting the outcome of a full investigation to learn details about the shooting incident,” it said.

Wright and Young said Lawson was an honor roll student who had all kinds of pets — snakes, iguanas and turtles among them — and would have friends visit often. She planned to get him “any kind of old car” this spring once he secured his driver’s license and his graduation.

Lawson ’s mother said she always tried to get her son’s day off to a positive start, having daily talks with him as she drove him to school. And wary that tragedy could strike at any time, she’d always tell him to be careful and have a nice day.

“That’s just in case we don’t see each other,” Wright said. “It doesn’t have to be something happens to him. It could be something happens to me. And I did that yesterday.”