A 14-year-old girl is dead after another girl, also 14, shot her in a dispute over a boy on Monday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago.
Prosecutors say the girl, who has not been named, unsuccessfully fired the gun before someone fixed it for her and handed it back. Authorities have charged the girl’s uncle, Donnell Flora, for aggravated battery after he provided his teenage niece with the gun she used to allegedly kill Endia Martin. Police say Flora also accompanied the girl.
According to the Sun-Times:
The 14-year-old girl pulled a gun from her waistband, authorities said, and aimed it at Endia Martin, who is the same age as the alleged shooter.
When the teen pulled the trigger, it jammed, prosecutors said during a bond hearing Tuesday for the alleged shooter.
She handed the gun to someone in the group she was with who fixed the weapon and handed it back to the girl, who then fatally shot Endia, also 14, in the back, prosecutors alleged.
The shooting left another 16-year-old girl wounded in the arm, police said. She was taken to St. Bernard’s Hospital and released. Endia died at Children’s Hospital.
First-degree murder charges were announced against a 14-year-old female suspect on Tuesday. In addition, a 17-year-old boy was also charged in connection with the shooting for allegedly hiding the gun that was used.
He faces a charge of felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, two counts of felony unlawful use of a weapon, and a misdemeanor reckless damage charge. Police did not release his name because he’s charged as a juvenile.
Endia’s parents, sadly, are trying to understand how an argument over a boy on Facebook turned deadly.
Endia’s stepfather, Kent Kennedy, said she was big dreamer who wanted to visit Paris and Rome and join the Navy or go to college.
“My daughter didn’t roam the streets at night,” said Kennedy, who works a number of jobs at Central Steel and Wire. “We were too strict. We had a strict curfew. She didn’t gang-bang. She never was in trouble with police.”
Kennedy and his wife, who works as a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home, were distraught Monday night.
“Me and my wife, we work constantly, every day raising three kids. … And I hate to say it, but the good kids, the standout children who are trying to go to school and do something with their lives, they’re the ones who are actually dying in the streets. The ones who want to accomplish something in life,” he said. “It’s not a South Side thing or a West Side thing, it’s the city as a whole. It seems like you can’t walk down the street or even ride the bus any more.”
Our prayers are with Endia’s family during this difficult time. May she rest in peace.
