CHICAGO (AP) — Four men have been charged in the death of a 9-year-old boy who was gunned down in a backyard after running from his Chicago home after becoming upset with his mother, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced Friday.
Charged with first-degree murder were Derrick Allmon, 19, Jabari Williams, 22, and Michael D. Baker, 19, in the death of Antonio Smith, McCarthy said. The fourth suspect hasn’t been identified.
Allmon —identified as the gunman — Williams and Baker were allegedly targeting rival gang members August 20 when they came across the child, McCarthy said. Allmon allegedly suspected Antonio was warning the targeted men what was about to happen and fired several shots at the boy.
Smith was shot at least four times and killed not far from where he lived in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.
Shortly after the shooting, the boy’s mother, Brandi Murry, said her son left home after she answered “no” when he asked for a cupcake. About an hour later, he was being taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, with gunshots to the chest.
McCarthy said Allmon had been arrested in 2012 on a gun charge, convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison the following year and was released weeks before the boy’s death.
“He should not have been out to commit this murder,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy credited the community for providing information leading to the arrests.
It wasn’t immediately known if the suspects have legal representation.
