14-Year-Old Boy Who Begged Mom To Let Him Outside Killed In Weekend Gun Violence
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Sep 21, 2015 2:36PM
A 14-year-old boy from North Kenwood—a South Side neighborhood not far from the Obamas' tony home—was fatally shot during a drive-by shooting while he was out to play basketball with his friends Saturday evening.
His mother, Michelle Poindexter, shook as she recounted the events of the evening to a Tribune reporter at the crime scene Sept. 19: Tyjuan was never allowed out of the house without permission, and that evening he begged Poindexter to let him go out with friends to play basketball. She told him no, but later relented when he asked again.
Tyjuan Poindexter was shot in the head, according to the Tribune, and he died lying in a driveway near 44th Street and South Greenwood Avenue. A 15-year-old companion was shot twice in the leg and survived. Neither boy had gang affiliations, according to the police, and Poindexter's mother says, "he loved everybody."
"I know the streets get real dangerous and they ain't trying to do nothing about it. My grandson is not a gang-banger," Michael Gabb, Tyjuan's grandfather, told ABC7.
Tyjuan's tragic shooting was among five homicides caused by gun violence recorded by the city since Friday evening, and at least 50 more people were shot over the weekend, ABC7 reports.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is on the cusp of presenting a 2016 city budget to the City Council that would increase police patrols by moving 319 police officers in administrative positions onto the streets—nearly half of them as beat officers.