Boy, 16, charged with killing three in Chatham shooting, including 14-year-old
Cynthia Jones and Jody Roberts, grandparents of 14-year-old Amere Deese, speak to a reporter near their South Shore home, Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Deese was one of three people killed in a shooting that Chicago police said also left one person wounded Sunday evening in a home in Chatham on the South Side.
Zubaer Khan/Sun-Times
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with a shooting that left three people dead — including a 14-year-old boy — in the South Side Chatham neighborhood last month.
Antonio Velasco, charged as an adult, faces a count of murder for each of the slain victims, as well as a count of attempted murder for a fourth person who was shot.
Velasco was expected to appear in court for a detention hearing Thursday afternoon.
Police originally said they were searching for two attackers who burst into a home in the 8000 block of South Vincennes Avenue on Feb. 25.
After a brief argument, they opened fire, killing Amere Deese, 14; Ladeverett West-Ringgold, 20, and Randy Graham, 36. A 16-year-old boy was also wounded.
No motive was released for the shooting, but a source told the Sun-Times that investigators believed the shooters knew at least some of those killed and that they had possibly been together earlier in the day.
The attack happened as Amere and one of his sisters were at a family friend’s house. West-Ringgold’s mother was in a first-floor bedroom getting two of her kids ready for school, according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times.
Hearing gunfire, the mother thought it was her kids playing a video game, but then saw someone sprint out the back of the home, the report said.
Amere was preparing to graduate from eighth grade at the O’Keeffe School of Excellence in the spring and was about to go on a college tour in March, his family said.
His grandparents described him as tall with black curly hair and said he was funny and could “fool people into thinking he was tough when he was actually a softy clown.”
Velasco, from the Grand Crossing neighborhood, was taken into custody Monday in south suburban Hazel Crest while walking down the street, according to his arrest report.
He was allegedly identified as one of the gunman by several witnesses, including the surviving 16-year-old boy.
The police report stated that Velasco fled from uniformed officers and that an officer was injured taking Velasco into custody while conducting an “emergency take down.”
Officials did not immediately say if a second suspect had been taken into custody.