Suspect arrested in gang-related killing of 9-year-old Chicago boy

Chicago police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a 9-year-old boy who they say was lured into an alley by gang members earlier this month and fatally shot, a department spokesman wrote on Twitter on Friday.

Corey Morgan, 27, of Lansing, Illinois, has been charged with first-degree murder for killing Tyshawn Lee, police said on Friday.

Morgan was denied bond, the Office of the State's Attorney for Cook County, Illinois said.

The killing of Tyshawn on Nov. 2 cast a national spotlight on a jump in violent crime in one of the country's largest cities, at a time when Chicago police have come under fire for what their critics say is a culture of racial bias.

Police, who did not publicly identify the suspect, have said the crime was linked to a rivalry between Tyshawn's father, a suspected gang member, and another group. The boy's father has denied being involved in a gang.

Like a number of other U.S. cities, Chicago has seen a rise in violence this year. Authorities reported 391 murders from Jan. 1 to Oct. 25, up 18 percent from the same period of 2014.

FBI Director James Comey said recently that violent crime may be up in certain areas because police are holding back from aggressive tactics, fearful of being videotaped and accused of brutality.

News of the arrest on Friday came the same day activists planned to stage a protest over the shooting death of a black teenager by a white Chicago patrolman in an incident caught on police dashboard camera.

Other experts say the rise in violence in Chicago and elsewhere in the nation was likely not caused by a weakening of police action but rather by the ready availability of guns or a growing heroin trade.