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Two Men Charged in Slaying of South Chicago Teen

By  Alex Parker  and Emily Morris | August 11, 2013 12:02pm | Updated on August 11, 2013 6:37pm

 Terrence Snowden, 24, left, and Phillip Boyd, 23, are charged in the shooting death of Tyrone Hart, 18.
Terrence Snowden, 24, left, and Phillip Boyd, 23, are charged in the shooting death of Tyrone Hart, 18.
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Chicago Police Department

CHICAGO — Two men have been accused of planning the shooting death of a South Chicago teen who hoped to escape Chicago's violence.

Terrence Snowden, 24, and Phillip L. Boyd, 23, were both charged with first-degree murder after allegedly gunning down 18-year-old Tyrone Hart in a drive-by shooting outside the teen's home July 23.

Snowden, who has a tattoo that says "death before dishonor" on his lower right arm, was also charged with possession of a firearm without a valid firearm owner's identification card and possession of marijuana, according to police.

Snowden, Boyd and another person who has not been charged found out where and when Hart was going to be that night and headed over to the location, Assistant State's Attorney Latoya Croswell said in court Sunday. Boyd gave Snowden a gun, Croswell said.

According to police, three men in a Nissan pulled up next to Hart in the 8100 block of South Chappel Avenue about 7:45 p.m. Snowden began shooting, striking Hart, according to Croswell.

Hart was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 8:24 p.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

Snowden was arrested on Saturday, and authorities searched his home in the 8700 block of South Euclid Avenue, according to police documents. They turned up a loaded Ruger 9mm semi-automatic handgun with 15 live rounds and an extended magazine, according to the documents. Boyd was also arrested Saturday, according to the documents.

Cook County Judge James Brown ordered Snowden held without bail and Boyd, of the 7700 block of South Bennett Avenue, held on $1 million bail.

Family told DNAinfo Chicago that Hart, who had recently witnessed the murder of a friend, hoped to get out of Chicago, perhaps to be near his sister in Atlanta.

“It was like, 'You need to go because there’s nothing here in Chicago,'” said Tina Hart, another of his three sisters. “You’re going to jail, or you’re going to die. I guess we were too late.”

His family said Hart was targeted by gang members because several of his cousins and close friends are in a gang. Since Hart spent so much time with them, his relatives said, he was mistaken for a member and singled out in a retaliation shooting.

“It’s nothing that he did. It was the company that he kept,” said Tina Hart, 26. These shootings “have been going on for a while now. It’s one side against the other — just back and forth.”

Police said they were not aware of Tyrone Hart having any documented gang ties.

- Erica Demarest contributed reporting