As many in Chicago still mourn the death of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee who was shot multiple times in a alley Monday, investigators revealed the young boy was lured and killed due to his father’s gang affiliation.
Chicago police Superintendent Gary McCarthy spoke with reporters Thursday (November 5) at the edge of the Gresham alley where Tyshawn was killed. Law enforcement officials said Tyshawn was probably targeted because of the on-going conflict between the city’s oldest gangs, The Gangster Disciples and The Black P. Stones.
The Chicago Tribune reports members of the Terror Dome fraction of the Black P Stones targeted Tyshawn because Pierre Stoke, Tyshawn’s father, allegedly belongs to the Killa Ward fraction of the Gangster Disciples.
Stokes, who spoke with police at the scene of his son’s killing, told reporters he doesn’t think Tyshawn’s death is a result of gang warfare.
“No, I don’t think it was no retaliation because I never did nothing to — for nobody to hurt my son, Stokes said.”
Stokes, 25, spoke with Tribune reporters saying no one would have motive to harm him, and if they did, there was no reason to take it out on his son.
“I’m not hard to find,” Stokes said.
Tyshawn was a fourth grader at Joplin Elementary School and had dreams of being drafted into the NBA. The basketball he carried with him to school everyday was found near his body.