CHICAGO (AP) — A teenager has been charged with murder in the shooting death of a 7-year-old boy in Chicago earlier this week who was not the intended target of the shooting, police said.
“There is no excuse for this violence,” Police Chief Larry Snelling said Friday evening.
Jai’mani Amir Rivera was killed on Tuesday in front of a house in the west of the city where he lived. A video shows shots fired from a distance of 91.4 meters, said Antoinette Ursitti, head of the criminal investigation department.
More than 100 people gathered near the scene Wednesday night to release balloons and mourn Chicago’s eighth youth age 15 or younger to be killed by gunfire in 2024, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“All I ask for is justice,” said Jai’mani’s aunt Vanessa Rivera.
A 16-year-old boy was charged as an adult with first-degree murder. A court hearing was scheduled for Saturday.
“It’s unfortunate that a mother and father who are doing what they’re supposed to do for their 7-year-old, raising their child, their child can’t even walk on the sidewalk without being hit by random gunfire,” Snelling said.
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