CHICAGO — A 16-year-old has been arrested and charged in the October robbery and fatal shooting of an Auburn Gresham man.
Bobby Wilson was arrested last week in connection to the Oct. 24 murder of Kenton Morgan in the 8000 block of South Halsted Street.
The teen faces murder and robbery with a firearm charges, according to Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
He is being held at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center on $500,000 bond, she said, and will be in court Dec. 26.
He does not have a criminal record, she said.
Morgan, 28, was walking back to his car after getting a haircut around 9:40 p.m. the day he was killed, Simonton said Thursday.
Wilson and another suspect allegedly were in Morgan's car, according to witnesses, Simonton said.
A struggle ensued and Morgan was shot, Simonton said. He exited his car, collapsed and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Wilson and the other suspect, who is still at large, allegedly fled on foot, according to witnesses.
Witnesses said the at-large suspect was seen carrying a gun, Simonton said.
Morgan’s cause of death was determined as a gunshot wound to the torso. A bullet and shell casings were found in his car, Simonton said.
Wilson was identified by witnesses in a photo array, Simonton said, and he confessed to being in the car when Morgan was shot. Wilson said that Morgan was shot during a robbery, according to Simonton.
Family and friends recalled Morgan as a quiet soul who loved animals.
He worked at Golden’s Tropical World for years and worked on the day he died, family members said.
Morgan, who was in the process of legally changing his name to Tapper, had a variety of pets during his life, everything from snakes to alligators and iguanas, according to Eric Golden, a longtime friend whose father owns the shop.
“One time he even had a monkey,” Golden recalled.
Morgan’s mother, Angela Griffin, said that her son’s smile was like a “thousand-watt bulb.”
“It would light the inside of you,” she said. “It was so warm. That’s what comforts me now when I think about him. I see his smiling face.”
