Father Of Murdered Son Arrested In Shooting
Pierre Stokes, 25, father of murdered 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, has been arrested and charged with shooting one of the men and the girlfriend of one of the men arrested and charged for shooting and killing his child.
Stokes has been charged with three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and one count of unlawful use of a gun after allegedly shooting at the woman last Tuesday evening.
The woman was identified as the girlfriend of Corey Morgan, one of the many arrested for the shooting of Tyshawn Lee last November.
The woman was injured with non-life threatening grazing wound on her face. She refused medical attention. Two men who stood beside her – 30 and 31 – were treated for non-life threatening wounds and where released from a local hospital. Their names were not released.
The New York Times reports that Mr. Stokes was arrested on Friday following the assaults.
The shooting occurred around 5:40 p.m. on Tuesday, the same day that new evidence about Tyshawn’s death emerged in court.
CNN reports an allegation that one of the suspects, Boone-Doty, stated he had first planned to torture the boy by cutting off his fingers and ears. Two other suspects met with Boone and force the boy into their vehicle.
The 9-year-old boy’s death is believed to be connected to a long-running gang war.
Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi commented on gang activity in the area.
“This represents the challenge that police grapple with, Mr. Stokes, who was involved in a gang lifestyle, ultimately suffered an unspeakable loss with the calculated execution of his son,” the statement said. “Despite this, he continued to engage in the same gang activity that started this initial cycle of violence.”
Tyshawn Lee was playing basketball after school when he was lured into an alley and shot multiple times. Chicago’s police superintendent at the time, Garry F. McCarthy, called it “probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime that I’ve witnessed in 35 years of policing.”
WREX reports that Tyshawn’s father was arrested and held with no bond.
The mandatory minimum sentence provides stiffer penalties for repeat weapons offenders, which might keep them off the streets longer. Statistics point to gang members convicted on gun charges spend an average of one year in jail. Within 12 months of their release, they are four times as likely to commit murder. Opponents of mandatory minimum sentencing insist that such laws do nothing but farm young, poor African-Americans and Hispanics out to prison without a chance for rehabilitation.
Tyshawn Lee was a trophy in the game of war in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, according to the Chicago Tribune, that has claimed at least five lives since 2011. Tyshawn was targeted because he was the son of a reputed gang member.
Tyshawn’s murder broke an unspoken rule that women and children are off-limits in gang-related retaliation. It is a sad reality of how aggressive and crude the gang world is becoming.
That rival between gangs has been a long-running and bloody war with the Bang Bang Gang/Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, police have said.
“CPD will continue our efforts to disrupt gang activity in Chicago and at the same time work with our community partners through our gang call-ins to try and urge gang members to see the casualties of that lifestyle and offer alternatives like job placement, training and education options,” a statement from the Chicago Police said.
Read more on the Tyshawn Lee shooting here
[Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images]
