Police: 9-year-old boy shot to death in Chicago was targeted

CHICAGO — A 9-year-old boy targeted by a gang was lured to an alley and shot dead earlier this week in what police on Thursday called a new low in Chicago's gang violence.

Initially, police had believed that the fourth grader, Tyshawn Lee, was killed in crossfire.

At a news conference in the alley where the boy was killed, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Lee's father was involved in a gang and that the death was linked to rivalry with another group. McCarthy said the father was not cooperating with police.

Father Michael Pfleger, a priest and social activist, told reporters that in the past gang members left each other's children alone, but that the code had eroded.

"This is a different level," McCarthy said. "These are non-combatants now being assassinated... This is an innocent child, this is a 9-year-old child, targeted, lured to this spot and murdered. This is different."

McCarthy, Pfleger and community leaders pleaded for people to get over their fear and to abandon the no-snitch code of Chicago's streets and come forward with information about the murder. They offered a $35,000 award.

Over the Fourth of July weekend this year, police said a 7-year-old Chicago boy was shot dead by gang members going after his father, who allegedly is in a gang. A Chicago man has been arrested and charged in that case.