Chicago: Boys, 14 and 15, Killed in Separate Shootings Friday

Two gunmen shot a 14-year-old boy several times on the night of Friday, January 11, 2013, as he stood on his porch, leaving him to die in the front hallway of his Humboldt Park home. Hours earlier, a 15-year-old was fatally shot in a separate attack in Little Village. Including both homicides, at least six teenagers were shot in Chicago between Friday afternoon and night, according to police.

Humboldt Park

The two shooters opened fire around 11:50 p.m. in the 2400 block of West Augusta Boulevard, striking the boy multiple times in the chest, a Chicago police news affairs officer said. A neighbor reported a car speeding down the street in reverse immediately afterward.

The boy, later identified by the Cook County medical examiner as Rey Dorantes of the same block, managed a few steps before collapsing just inside his home. Paramedics found him bleeding from several wounds; he died at the scene. Police recovered blood on the front steps and more than half a dozen shell casings from the sidewalk.

The high school freshman had been talking on a cellphone in front of his home moments before the shots, his stepmother said. Police sources said the shooting may have been gang-related, but family and friends insisted he avoided gangs, spending his free time on music and his bicycle. He had thrown himself into a school bike-shop program designed, his mother said, to keep kids away from exactly the violence that killed him.

He would have turned 15 the following Tuesday. "Now he's not even going to see his 15th birthday," his stepmother said.

Little Village

About 6:40 p.m. the same day, a shooter walked up to a 15-year-old in the 2600 block of South Ridgeway Avenue, shouted a gang slogan, and opened fire, striking the boy in the torso, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m. The medical examiner identified him as Victor Vega.

No arrests

No suspects were in custody in either shooting. Two neighborhoods, two families, one Friday night: the arithmetic of Chicago's gun violence, which in 2012 had produced more than 500 homicides and made the city a national symbol of the crisis.

FAQ

Who were the victims? Rey Dorantes, 14, of Humboldt Park, and Victor Vega, 15, of Little Village.

When did the shootings happen? Friday, January 11, 2013, hours apart.

Were they gang-related? Police cited possible gang connections; both families said the boys avoided gangs.

Were arrests made? No suspects were in custody in either case at the time of reporting.

The takeaway

A 14-year-old on his porch, a 15-year-old on the sidewalk, six teenagers shot in a single day. Chicago's violence did not pause for the national gun debate. It never does.