‘Cowardly’ execution of boy, 9, in Chicago

A 9-year-old Chicago boy who was fatally shot this week was “lured” from a park into an alley and executed because of his father’s alleged gang connections, police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a crime he described as among the most “unfathomable” of his 35 years in policing.

Tyshawn Lee, an elementary school student, was walking to his grandmother’s house when he was shot in the head and back last Monday in a neighbourhood alley on the city’s South Side.

McCarthy told reporters that the killing was the result of two gangs fighting, potentially in a string of retaliatory events dating back months. He said the boy’s father is not co-operating with police.

McCarthy called it probably the “most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime that I’ve witnessed in 35 years of policing”.

“Everybody is sick; everybody is disgusted,” he said.

The child’s father, Pierre Stokes, has disagreed with authorities’ characterisation of him and said he’s easy to find. He has not talked about whether he is a gang member but said police have spent more time pursuing him than finding out who killed his son.

“I answered every question they asked me,” he told reporters not far from the spot his son was killed. “They’re not asking me questions that I know. I don’t know the questions that they asked me.”

A memorial for the boy — stuffed animals, candles, and balloons — lingers in the alley.