A teenage student was shot and killed Tuesday near a high school on Chicago’s South Side, according to reports.
The Simeon Career Academy student was identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Jamari Williams, 15. He was shot at a strip mall less than a half-mile from the high school at around 2:40 p.m.
A vehicle drove up and someone inside opened fire, striking him in the chest. He was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in critical condition and later pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made.
The sophomore football player was with a group of students from the school at the time of the shooting, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
“He was not the kid with the tattoos or a kid that was bad. He was a kid that hoped to move his mother out of the hood through football,” said Pastor Donovan Price, who spoke with the boy’s family, according to FOX 32.
At least a dozen shots were fired, witnesses said. A backpack and sandals were among the items that lay in the parking lot and sidewalk in front of a BMO Harris Bank branch after the shooting, photos showed. The items were surrounded by more than a dozen evidence markers.
“We heard the sound and saw people running,” said an unidentified employee at a nearby GameStop, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Kids were leaving school and then it happened.”
Price added that Williams previously lost his father to gun violence.
“The family wants everyone to know: this was a good kid. A kid who wanted to play football. Who looked forward to playing football at Simeon, but unfortunately because of COVID that was delayed,” he said.
Police said the shooting is under investigation.
