Third suspect in Tyshawn Lee shooting charged with murder

CHICAGO, May 18 (UPI) -- Kevin Edwards, the third suspect in the November shooting death of Tyshawn Lee, 9, was returned to Chicago and charged with first-degree murder Wednesday.

Edwards, 23, was taken into custody in Danville, Ill., Saturday after he fled on foot during a routine traffic stop by a Vermillion County sheriff. He was transported to Chicago, and arraigned on murder charges, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Wednesday. Two other suspects, Dwright Boone-Doty, 22, and Corey Morgan, 27, have been jailed since November.

Investigators believe Tyshawn's death was part of a gang retaliation against the boy's father, Pierre Stokes, for the death of Morgan's brother, Tracey Morgan, who was shot and killed three weeks before Tyshawn's shooting while sitting in a car with his mother, who was wounded in the attack. Police said Tyshawn's death was part of an escalating war between two local gangs.

Tyshawn, a fourth-grader, was lured into an alley while walking to his grandmother's home and shot multiple times; Boone-Doty allegedly had planned to torture him, threatening to cut off the boy's fingers.