Murder charges have been filed against a second suspect in the November 2015 killing of a 9-year-old boy, a crime that horrified a Chicago community.
Gang members targeted the boy, Tyshawn Lee, as part of a gang war, Chicago police have said. Tyshawn was lured into an alley and shot to death.
Prosecutors have charged Dwright Boone-Doty, 22, with first-degree murder in Tyshawn’s death, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told CNN.
Boone-Doty is already imprisoned on unrelated criminal charges. A multi-agency investigation, including a corrections intelligence team, uncovered evidence to charge the inmate with targeting, luring and executing the 9-year-old boy, Guglielmi said.
Boone-Doty was also charged with murder and attempted murder in a separate shooting.
A sinister killing
The acting superintendent of the Chicago Police Department, John Escalante, said that even in a city that has witnessed numerous gang-related killings, the killing of Tyshawn “was something far more sinister.”
The boy was targeted and killed because his father was a ranking member of a rival gang, Escalante said at a news conference Tuesday.
“In nearly 30 years of policing, I have never witnessed such a hateful act of treachery and savageness toward an innocent child whose life barely had the chance to flourish,” he said.
Doty’s first planned to kidnap and torture Tyshawn by cutting off his fingers and ears, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez said.
Alvarez said that Boone-Doty made statements about how he approached Tyshawn at a playground and invited him to a store to buy the boy something.
Witnesses saw Boone-Doty and the boy walk out of the playground together, Alvarez said.
Boone-Doty then led the boy into an alley and shot him several times at close range, Alvarez said.
The other two suspects were with Boone-Doty before the killing, and met with him afterward to purchase cleaning supplies in an attempt to sanitize the vehicle they used that day before abandoning it, Alvarez said.
Third suspect at large
Boone-Doty is the second person charged in Tyshawn’s killing. In November, Corey Morgan, 27, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. At the time, police said Morgan didn’t act alone, but with two others, including one who was in custody on an unrelated charge. Boone-Doty is the suspect police were referring to.
The third suspect, Kevin Edwards, remains at large, Guglielmi said.
Court papers provided by the prosecutor’s office said that “Tyshawn’s death is the result of a gang war” between two particular gangs that “came to a boil” after Morgan’s brother, Tracy, was shot and killed in a car with their mother on October 13.
The mother was shot and wounded, court papers said.
“Shortly after the shooting [Corey Morgan] stated that since his brother was killed and his mama was shot he was going to kill grandmas, mamas, kids and all,” according to court documents.
An autopsy of Tyshawn’s body showed two perforating gunshot wounds, and part of his right thumb was lost as a defensive wound trying to block a gunshot, court papers said. The boy’s body had a gunshot wound to the head, a bullet graze wound to his right upper back, and a superficial wound to the right forearm, documents said.
“There was evidence of close-range firing,” court papers said.