CHICAGO — Two teens were killed Friday night in separate Chicago shootings.
Rey Dorantes, 14, was sitting on the porch of his family home at about 11:50 p.m. Friday on the 2400 block of West Augusta Boulevard, police and family said.
His father had told him to come inside just before he was killed, according to JoAnn Tenev, Rey's stepmother.
Two males approached him and fired shots, according to police. He was pronounced dead at 2:55 a.m. at the Cook County medical examiners office.
Sitting on a porch Saturday morning still stained with Rey's blood, Tenev said she and Rey’s father had just come home Friday before Rey was shot.
“Not even two minutes later we hear gunshots,” she said.
They came out to find Rey lying in the entryway, shot, Tenev said.
“When I opened the door he was laying there, face down,” she said.
Rey was a helpful and generous kid, Tenev said. He once brought lunch to a gas station attendant down the street because he couldn’t go get lunch for himself.
“Anytime you needed him to help you, he’d be right there,” she said.
Rey liked music and riding his bike, she said. He attended Roberto Clemente Community Academy and liked to go swimming at Smith Park in the summer.
He wanted to join the Army when he graduated, Tenev said.
Rey was close to Tenev’s daughter and hated seeing anybody unhappy, she said.
“Anytime she was upset and ready to cry, he’d say, ‘there ain’t no crying here,’” Tenev said. “He didn’t like to see anybody sad.”
Rey had one younger brother and two older brothers, she said, and the family was tight knit.
“He just loved life,” Tenev said.
While police told the family that Rey’s shooting might have been a gang-related and a case of mistaken identity, Tenev said Rey did not associate with gangs.
“He was in ROTC,” she said. “They wanted him to cut his hair but he wouldn’t do it. He wasn’t one of them to sit on the corner gang banging."
Rey was going to turn 15 on Tuesday, Tenev said. Now, the family is left to plan a funeral instead of a birthday party.
“We don’t have money for his funeral,” she said. “We have nothing.”
Rey was going to become an uncle for the first time in May, Tenev said.
“Monday comes, his dad’s going to go wake him up for school and he’s not going to be there,” she said. “He didn’t deserve this. He’s sitting out here talking on the phone. Is that a reason to shoot somebody?”
Rey’s father, who has raised the boys himself, is in shock, Tenev said.
“He can’t believe it,” she said. “He spoke to his son and two minutes later his son is dead. What can you say about that?”
In the second shooting, Victor Vega, 15, was walking with another male at about 6:40 p.m. Friday on the 2600 block of South Ridgeway Avenue when a man approached them and started shouting gang slogans before firing several shots, police said.
Vega, of the 2600 block of South Central Park Avenue, sustained a gunshot wound to the back and was taken to Mt. Sinai hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:19 p.m., according to authorities.
