The family of a 15-year-old boy gunned down late Friday in Chicago's South Deering neighborhood is offering a reward for information about his murder.
"I know someone knows something," Ida Hall, the mother of Deon Gilbert Jr., told reporters Tuesday, "and this code of silence, snitches get stitches, it's bullcrap!"
Gilbert and a friend were walking near Trumbull Park in the 10400 block of Bensley Avenue around 10:45 p.m. when a dark-colored minivan pulled up and the driver shot Gilbert in the abdomen, according to police and witnesses.
"It sounded like it was in my yard," said Joe Cuellar, who lives in the neighborhood. "I looked out the window and heard somebody moan, and I saw a boy in the grass."
Cuellar took cover and called 911. Deon was taken to Comer's Children's Hospital, where he later died.
"The doctor came out and told me he didn't make it," Hall said.
A $5,000 reward has been raised, and Gilbert's family on Tuesday went door-to-door with community activist Andrew Holmes to hand out flyers and ask for information
Hall said her son, who was a sophomore at Butler College Prep in the Pullman neighborhood, loved to draw and play football. The youngest of her four kids, Hall said Deon wanted to go to college on a football scholarship and become an architect.
"He's the baby, everybody's baby," Hall said.
Hall said the last time she spoke to Deon was 8 p.m. Friday. Hall said Deon told her earlier in the night that he was going to be out with a friend.
"I knew all his little friends. I had all his little friends' numbers in my phone," Hall said. "He didn't hang out with gang bangers. He didn't hang out with dope dealers. He was 15."
But Hall said Deon was suspended from school two weeks ago for fighting and said she wonders if that incident is connected to his death.
"Of course, no one's talking, but I need some answers to why my baby is not here with us," Hall said.
