Four in Chicago charged with gunning down 9-year-old boy

CHICAGO, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Four alleged gang members may have shot a Chicago boy because they thought he was about to warn the pair they wanted to kill, a police officer said Friday.

Derrick Allmon, 19, who allegedly fired the shot that killed Antonio Smith, 9, Jabari Williams, 22, Paris Denard, 19, and Michael Baker, 19, were charged with first-degree murder. Police said they belong to the Sircon City faction of the Gangster Disciples.

Antonio, who lived in a neighborhood dominated by a rival gang faction, Pocket Town, was shot and killed last month. Investigators said he was hit by at least four shots as he became the youngest victim of a shooting homicide this year in Chicago.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the four accused were looking for two Pocket Town members when they came across Antonio, who was in a yard backed by railroad tracks that serve as a territorial boundary. He said they may have thought the boy was about to call out a warning.

"When this murder first occurred, our investigators initially had very little to work with," McCarthy said. "However, the nature of this murder, that a 9-year-old boy could be gunned down in cold blood, outraged both the community and our residents."

Williams was arrested last week after allegedly throwing a handgun away. Police said that once he was in custody he implicated himself and the others in Antonio's killing.

The gun used to shoot the boy had been used before, McCarthy said.

"Chicago's murder problem is a gun problem," he said. "It's too easy to get a firearm."