CHICAGO — 7-Year-Old Amari Brown is dead… and he was the unintended victim of a bullet meant for his father, a ranking gang member who was out on bond for illegal gun charge, police say.
The boy was shot, and another woman injured, as he and his father walked home from a fireworks show on Saturday around 11:55 p.m.
The father is refusing to speak to police. He has been arrested some 45 times.
“If Mr. Brown is in custody, his son is alive. That’s not the case. Quite frankly, he shouldn’t have been on the street,” Superintendent McCarthy told NBC Chicago.
No suspects are in custody, police are following several leads in the murder.
WATCH: Slain boy’s mother breaks down during TV interview.
From ABC7: “Earlier Monday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel visited with the Brown family.
“The idea that you’re taking a 7-year old out at midnight, you have a responsibility to that child, and then to cooperate with the police department on a crime committed to that 7-year old,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said.
Directly across the street from where Amari was gunned down, there is a Chicago Police Department pod camera that may have a clean view of the drive-by. Police would only comment that the pod camera was operational and that they are reviewing the video and other nearby surveillance cameras.”
The boy is among the 9 killed and 53 wounded during July 4th weekend in Chicago.
