The Chicago Sun reported that on September 27, eight-year-old Demetrius Stevenson was killed after he was shot in the head while he played on the front porch of his home in Markham, Illinois.
Police reported that on the day of the incident, two suspects hid behind a fence and were planning to ambush someone. The suspects had allegedly traveled from Chicago to settle a gang-related issue with a man standing in the Stevenson’s yard.
Surveillance video showed when one of them, in a white hoodie, took a look around the fence, then disappeared, and another one then showed up and opened fire. Demetrius ended up being shot in the head.
LaTonya Stevenson, Demetrius’ mother, was devastated to find her little boy had been killed on her front porch. “He shot my baby in the head — my 8-year-old baby,” she said. “Why would you do that? Why?”
Demetrius’ older brother grabbed his body and attempted to drive him to the hospital, but it was too late; by then, Demetrius was no longer breathing. “When they made it around the block, my baby died,” Stevenson said.
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Demetrius’ mother said that despite police stating that her older son was the target of the attack, she believed the suspects had followed one of her older son’s friends to her home and were targeting him.
“The news and Markham city police are lying about my son,” she said. “He was not the target. They’re trying to say my baby is in a gang. My baby ain’t in no gang.”
Despite Latonya’s statement and the teenager attempting to save his little brother’s life, he was taken into custody after the shooting on a separate charge and questioned about the shooting, according to city administrator Derrick Champion.
Officials have not yet taken anyone into custody for the killing of Demetrius.
