Four men in their early 20s have been charged in last week's mass shooting spree in Chicago that injured 13 people, including a 3-year-old boy.
Tabari Young and Brad Jett, both 22, along with Bryon Champ, 21, and Kewane Gatewood, 20, have been charged. Young is being singled out as the shooter, according to the Chicago Tribune. Gatewood and Champ are scheduled to face bond court today. The Cook County state attorney's office announced thatall men are being charged with aggravated battery with a firearm and attempted murder.
Police believe it was these men who opened fire on a basketball court at Cornell Square Park in Chicago's Back of the Yards neighborhood. In a statement given Monday night, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said, "Chicago Police detectives continue to work tirelessly to solve this case and hold the criminals who committed this senseless act of violence last Thursday night responsible for their actions." The Chicago Tribune says law-enforcement officials believe that Jett, Gatewood and Champ helped Young, who fired off more than a dozen rounds from an assault rifle that resulted in no deaths but 13 injuries. Police believe the shootings were gang-related. Champ is a documented gang member, as are some of the victims.
In related news, Deonta Howard, the 3-year-old boy who was shot in the cheek, is making a quick recovery. He is expected to go home in a few days, but whether he will go back to the park where he was shot is another question, according to his mother, Shamarah Leggett, who was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune. "I don't think he ever gonna, you know, feel safe in a park," she said. "Cause he always say he want to go to the park. He say, 'I don't wanna go on the baby swing, I wanna go on the big people swing' … But since he been talking, he hasn't said anything about a park. He just wanna go home."
Read more at the Chicago Tribune and ABC News.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.