Family handout(CHICAGO) — A teenager who was helping his mother’s boyfriend deliver newspapers in Chicago was fatally shot in the head early this morning in what police say may have been a case of mistaken identity.
Brian Jasso, 15, was seated in the rear passenger seat of his mother’s boyfriend’s 2000 Honda CRV traveling along West 47th Street in the LeClaire Courts community, minutes north of Chicago’s Midway International Airport.
Jasso was in the process of helping the man deliver the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers when a white vehicle “drove up behind” their SUV and, according to a police report, “bumped the vehicle” from behind.
Someone then exited the white car, “produced a weapon” and “fired shots” that struck Jasso in the back of the head, Chicago police said.
Authorities are investigating whether the killing was an attempted revenge for a gang-related, triple shooting from two days ago when three reputed gang members were gunned down, Chicago Police Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement.
“We’re exploring two theories at this early stage,” he wrote, before stressing that the details could change. “The first is a case of mistaken identity.”
While neither Jasso nor his mother’s boyfriend have criminal histories with Chicago police, he said, there was a good chance Monday’s encounter was revenge for a deadly shooting in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood.
“It’s very possible this could be part of an ongoing gang conflict which flared up last night following the triple shooting,” Guglielmi said.
In that Saturday attack, Chicago Police Officer Patrick McGinnis told ABC News, at around 9:30 p.m., at least three unidentified people were traveling in a four-door sedan when a shooter standing on the sidewalk opened fire and killed a 25-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman.
A third man, 20, suffered gunshot wounds to his arms and legs.
The survivor was transported to a hospital and is in stable condition, McGinnis said.
Chicago Tribune publisher and editor-in-chief Bruce Dold gave a statement to the paper expressing remorse for Jasso’s death.
“We are saddened and stunned by this news,” he said. “Our hearts go out to the family of the young man who was killed.”
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.