SOUTH SHORE — Chicagoans trickled into the sanctuary at Haven of Rest Missionary Baptist Church Monday evening to show support and pay their respects for the life of Tyshawn Lee, a 9-year-old who police said was lured into an alley and killed last week.
“It’s so heartbreaking that I had to come,” said Deborah Davis, a South Shore resident. “I’m so sick and tired of [the violence], but what can we do? My grandson is 12 and I watch him everywhere. He doesn’t go anywhere by himself.”
Tyshawn was targeted possibly because of his family's gang ties, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said last week. He was killed near his grandmother's home in Auburn Gresham on the 8000 block of South Damen Avenue.
Tyshawn's wake and funeral will start Tuesday at 10 a.m. at St. Sabina Church, 1210 W. 78th Place.
Tyshawn's mother, Karla Lee, was surrounded by friends and family on the front pew of the sanctuary. She had her head bowed and the arms and hands of loved ones touching her as she quietly shed tears for her son.
Lee said that she doesn’t believe anything more can be done because it’s just going to “keep happening.”
Earlier in the day, about five or six teachers from Joplin Elementary, 7927 S. Honore St., came to give their condolences, said Ann Williams, a trustee at the church. They brought a basketball signed by Tyshawn’s classmates.
Darius Randle, the young adult pastor at Resurrection House Baptist Church in south suburban Dolton, said that Tyshawn's family is “very calm,” but Tuesday's funeral is going to be hard on them.
“The mother, she’s strong from what I see in there. It looks like they’re coming together, they feel a sense of togetherness, which is important," Randle said.
Ald. David Moore (17th) commented on the murder at an event earlier on Monday he hosted for the ward.
“This person has to be captured by all means,” he said. ‘Tt’s sad and tough when someone can be so demonic to kill a child. My efforts is to make sure I’m talking to people as I’m out here, trying to find out who did and we have to get that person off the street.”
Earlier Monday, the Rev. Michael Pfleger said he's strictly focused on finding who killed Tyshawn.
"The only thing that's on my plate is putting Tyshawn to rest and finding his killer," Pfleger said. "We've raised $55,000 so far as a reward for anyone with information on the murder. We've gotten some very very very good leads, good information, but still waiting on that next jump. I'm hoping someone will be arrested before the funeral. I'm confident there's going to be an arrest."
Pfleger added that Tyshawn's dead is "an embarrassing and shameful new low" for Chicago.
"What's happened here in Chicago is an embarrassing and shameful new low of a 9-year-old child being executed," Pfleger said. "We've got to not only find his killer, but we've got to ask outselves in Chicago, what has happened to our moral center? We've got to find the courage to address the roots of this violence: unemployment, poor education, a lack of strong homes, and this proliferation of guns. We've gotta have courage to go beyond the murder and go to all the roots that help produce murder, including this moral low we've reached, and whether Chicago wants to wear this mantle or not.
"The whole country is looking at Chicago and the violence here. And whether we want that mantle or not, it's ours — so let's put on a new mantle of trying to eradicate it."
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