16-year-old charged in Chatham triple homicide
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting at a home in the Chatham neighborhood that left three people dead, including a 14-year-old, and one wounded, Chicago police officials said Thursday.
The charges were in connection to a Feb. 25 shooting that occurred inside a home in the 8000 block of South Vincennes Avenue. The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m., authorities said.
Antonio Velasco, who was arrested Tuesday in south suburban Hazel Crest, was charged as an adult with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced Thursday.
At a news briefing at CPD headquarters Thursday morning, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx offered her condolences to the families of those affected by the shooting: “Your lives have been forever changed and altered by this tragedy — of what should have been a young boy, who acted as though a man, and will suffer the consequences as an adult.”
Velasco, of the Grand Crossing neighborhood, was allegedly “welcomed inside the house as an acquaintance of a young man who was friends with the family who lived there,” said Antoinette Ursitti, police chief of detectives. The shooting followed an “altercation” between the people in the room, she added.
Killed were Amere Deese, 14; Ladeverett West-Ringgold, 20 and Randy Graham, 36. A fourth victim survived his gunshot wound.
“If we don’t hold these young people accountable when they are committing violent crimes, one or two things are going to happen,” police Superintendent Larry Snelling warned during the news conference. “They’re going to continue to commit those violent crimes and eventually become a statistic themselves … or they’re going to end up in prison.”
Surrounded by detectives who worked the case, Ald. William Hall, 6th, stressed the importance of building communities to help mitigate violence, bolstering parks and schools ahead of the traditionally more violent summer months. “So I’m calling everyone before it gets hot, before the summertime comes, what block are you building?” he asked.
The triple homicide occurred during a violent weekend and occurred hours after two men shot at a group in a park in the Rogers Park neighborhood the same day, killing one and injuring three others.
Velasco was arrested after detectives used video footage to identify him, and is scheduled for a detention hearing in the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Detectives said they are following up on a second “person of interest” involved in the shooting.
Chicago Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky, Adriana Perez and Kate Armanini contributed.