A 17-year-old boy was fatally shot Monday afternoon in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side, police said.
Killed was Christopher Clark, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police said the teen was crossing the street on the 4500 block of South Hoyne Avenue around 6:40 p.m. when a gunman standing at a nearby alley opened fire, striking the victim in the chest.
Clark, of the 4800 block of South Seeley Avenue, was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead, a medical examiner’s spokeswoman said.
Clark was an 11th-grade student at Kelly High School this past school year, said Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for the
Chicago Public Schools.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday.
Police didn’t give a motive for the slaying. Clark is the third teen to be killed in the area this month. On June 13, Estavion Green, 18, was shot and killed on the 5300 block of South Wood Street. Two days prior, Torrence Wright, 20, was fatally shot on the 5200 block of South Wood Street.
BEAT 914
Family: Teen killed in S. Side shooting in 'safer' neighborhood
Kristopher Clark usually spent the summer at his grandparents’ house—not too far from his mother’s in Back of Yards, but in a safer neighborhood from his own, his mother said today.
Monday evening, as Clark, 17, walked from his grandmother’s house to the home of another relative he was shot to death trying to run for cover when someone opened fire from a nearby alley, said his mother, Quintella Watkins.
Clark was in summer school, getting ready for his senior year at Kelly High School, said his stepfather, Lamont Watkins. Clark loved music, and the movies “
The Temptations” and “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” and was considering attending a technical school and becoming a Commonwealth Edison line worker, his family said.
“Kris—he was just a quiet, quiet young man,” said Watkins, who has known Clark since he was 2 and has been married to Clark’s mother for five years. “We never had trouble with him. He wasn’t hanging with the wrong crowd or anything like that.”
Clark was on his way to the nearby home of his great-grandmother when someone came out of an alley and started shooting down the block, Quintella Watkins said.
Police said the teen was crossing the street on the 4500 block of South Hoyne Avenue around 6:40 p.m. Monday when the gunman opened fire, striking the teen. He died from a gunshot wound to his side, the Cook County medical examiner's office found following an autopsy today.
Clark, of the 4800 block of South Seeley Avenue, was taken to Stroger Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:46 p.m., a medical examiner’s spokeswoman said.
Clark was an 11th-grade student at Kelly High School this past school year, said Frank Shuftan, a spokesman for the
Chicago Public Schools. Police said he had no known gang affiliation or arrest record.
Clark loved music so much that he knew all the words, music and dance moves from the movie “The Temptations,” his mother said. He attended Kelly High School in hope of becoming a basketball player there, after playing basketball in grammar school and at the Micek Playlot, 5311 S. Hamilton Ave., she said.
Clark had recently been trying to decide what to do after high school, and in recent months told his mother he was more interested in attending a technical school. She suggested perhaps training to become a ComEd line technician, and he recently told her he was interested, his mother said.
Quintella Watkins said she heard about her son’s shooting shortly after it happened, and was able to get to the scene before paramedics left, she said. Witnesses on the scene told her that when the shooting started, others in the area started hitting the ground, but Clark started running away to try to escape the gunfire, she said.
“He’s not the most street-smart,” Quintella Watkins said. “When everyone’s falling, he’s running.”
When Quintella Watkins arrived at the scene of the shooting, officials there weren’t immediately able to tell her which hospital her son might be taken for treatment—Stroger or Comer Children’s Hospital. She was not allowed to ride in the ambulance—usually that’s not allowed with advance-life support patients, according to the
Chicago Fire Department—but drove to Stroger.
The ambulance carrying Clark hadn’t arrived, so thinking that he might be at Comer, his mother went there. When he was not there, she went back to the crime scene and tried to get information out of police.
At first, police would not speak to her, Quintella Watkins said, but detectives came over and told her Clark had been taken to Stroger after she threatened to sue the city, she said. She went back to Stroger, and at first officials there would not confirm whether Clark was still alive.
She was taken to a room with a curtain, and she opened it, Quintella Watkins said.
“When I pulled the curtain back, and I saw his little nose, I knew it was my baby,” she said.
Clark’s funeral is expected to be Thursday or Friday at
Trinity United Church of Christ, his mother said. In addition to his mother and stepfather, he is survived by two sisters, ages 8 and 6.
Police didn’t give a motive for the slaying. Clark is the third young man to be killed in the area this month. On June 13, Estavion Green, 18, was shot and killed on the 5300 block of South Wood Street. Two days prior, Torrence Wright, 20, was fatally shot on the 5200 block of South Wood Street.
Police haven’t made any arrests and didn’t have a description of the gunman.
