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Anonymous Tip Led to Arrest in Clemente Student's Slaying: Cops

By  Erica Demarest and Geoff Ziezulewicz | February 23, 2013 9:11am | Updated on February 23, 2013 4:59pm

CHICAGO — The Bolingbrook man charged in last week's fatal shooting of an honors student was ordered held without bail Saturday, after an anonymous tip led to his arrest early Friday morning.

Larry Luellen Jr., 34, of the 400 block of Salem Square in Bolingbrook, Ill., faces one count of first-degree murder in the Feb. 15 shooting death of Frances Colon.

“An anonymous tip really got the ball rolling in terms of identifying Luellen,” Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said at a press conference Saturday.

Colon, 18, was fatally shot in the back Feb. 15 on the 1100 block of North Pulaski Road in Humboldt Park, police said.

The teen, who lived on the 2900 block of West Armitage Avenue in Logan Square, was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead there about an hour later, according to authorities.

McCarthy called Colon “an innocent victim” who was at the wrong place at the wrong time during a "very clearly" narcotics-related shooting.

The intended target of the shooting — a man police said has gang affiliations who is currently on parole for assaulting a police officer — has been identified, but is refusing to cooperate with police, McCarthy said.

“He should not have been on the street,” McCarthy said. “If he was incarcerated, perhaps this crime would not have occurred.”

Colon was a senior honors student at Robert Clemente High School, her family said.

She was the third Clemente student to be killed in the last three months.

Jeffrey Stewart, 16, was slain on the same block as Frances in December. Rey Dorantes, 14, was shot dead in January.

Luellen will appear in court again Monday.