Chicago cops arrested a hard-hearted gang member in the murder of 9-year-old boy, finally charging a man they questioned immediately after the shooting, as police eye two more suspects.
Police suspect a trio of gang members killed Tyshawn Lee earlier this month after luring the boy away from a neighborhood basketball court.
Corey Morgan, 27, was charged with first-degree murder Friday while cohort Kevin Edwards, 22, remained on the lam, officials said at a morning press conference. A third unnamed suspect was in police custody on unrelated gun charges as investigators build their case against him. All three belonged to the same gang.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy vowed to destroy the group responsible for the boy’s brutal murder.
“They are going to be obliterated," he said. "That gang just signed its death warrant."
McCarthy did not detail each suspect's role in the shooting.
“We know that there were three individuals involved in this," he said.
Morgan's arrest comes nearly a month after Tyshawn's Nov. 2 shooting death.
The basketball-loving boy was lured away from a park into an alleyway where he was shot in the head, said McCarthy, who called the killing “probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime” he had ever seen.
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The boy's grandma found the boy's body next to his beloved basketball.
Police first questioned Morgan two days after the fourth grader's death,but the "documented gang member" was released without charges,McCarthy said.
About two weeks later, Morgan was arrested on weapons charges unrelated to Tyshawn’s death. He was released from jail after he paid the required $100,000 of his $1 million bond.
Police previously said Tyshawn’s death stemmed from a gang rivalry between the Killa Ward faction of the Gangster Disciples and the Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones.
The boy’s dad, Pierre Stokes, allegedly belongs to Killa Ward, and the boy's death was at the hands of a competing group.
The Friday arrest comes amid protests throughout Chicago over the 2014 police shooting death of a 16-year-old.
Officer Jason Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday, just hours before the release of horrific dash-cam video showing the officer shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times. Demonstrators have rallied for three straight nights demanding justice for black people
