A bullet intended for Antonio Brown rang out amid the loud blasts of fireworks above and fatally struck his 7-year-old son outside a northwest Chicago home late Saturday.
Amari Brown died in what Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy described as a “senseless murder.”
An unidentified gunman opened fire outside the 1100 block of West Harding Avenue just before midnight as Amari played with more than a dozen children.
The shooting left Amari helpless on the sidewalk where his father, who had been standing nearby, scooped him up and jumped into the back of a car.
He held his dying boy in his lap for the five-mile car ride to a local hospital where Amari died.
“I was in the back seat, I was talking to him the whole time. I was like, ‘You cool, I know you cool,'” Brown recalled to the Tribune.
He continued to wear the white pants soaked with his son’s blood Sunday morning.
The heartbreaking tragedy quickly turned to a blame game as Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy flashed his frustration at a press conference and put Brown’s extensive criminal history as a high-ranking gang member on display.
Investigators tallied up 45 arrests, most a variety of gun, burglary and assault charges, for Brown. The latest was in April when he allegedly led police on a vehicle chase. He has since been out on bond for gun charges ever since, authorities said.
“Quite frankly, he should not have been on the street. This is exactly what the men and women of Chicago (police) are up against,” McCarthy said. “I’m angry, I’m frustrated that we’re here again talking about a senseless murder. This has got to stop.”
McCarthy is wary that more police officers on the street could put a stop to the streaks of violence that have plagued Chicago. He lobbied for better gun laws in Illinois citing New York’s tough firearm restrictions as an example. McCarthy was NYPD’s deputy commissioner of operations until 2006.
In the hours before Amari’s death, he spent his final hours playing at his grandmother’s house as relatives barbecued, according to the Chicago Tribune.
“Who would shoot a 7-year-old in the chest? Who would do that to a baby,” Vedia Hailey told the Tribune outside John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital where her grandson died.
The shooting left the boy’s grieving mother sobbing into a SpongeBob SquarePants pillow while surrounded by friends and relatives.
“I don’t know how me and my family is going to go on. My baby was everything,” Amber Hailey cried.
The shooting also wounded a 26-year-old woman who is in stable condition after being shot, authorities said.
Brown was expected to start second grade this year.
His aunt, Andrina Hailey, called Amari’s death “a waste” and pleaded on Facebook for a stop to violence.
“Please stop killing our FUTURE! All my nephew wanted was to eat candy, sneak freeze pops, laugh and dance. WHY was he murdered?” Hailey wrote. “Now he is gone too soon.”
The boy was excelling in science and loved to show off a ribbon he earned for a science project, his family told the Tribune.
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