UNIVERSITY VILLAGE — Before Elton Blue was shot Saturday, he lived to play basketball.
That was the first thing most friends and neighbors remembered about the 21-year-old, a day after he died from his wounds.
Around 2:45 a.m. Saturday, Blue was sitting outside his home with two 17-year-olds in the Barbara Jean Wright Court Apartments in University Village when two men jumped out of a car and started shooting, according to police. The two teens suffered non-life-threatening wounds, but Blue was shot in his head. Doctors at John H. Stroger Hospital pronounced him dead Sunday afternoon, according to Cook County medical examiners.
Police had said Blue was a "documented gang member," but those who knew him said that couldn't have been further from the truth.
"He was never involved in that stuff — those guys just came and started shooting, like random. ... I really don't think he was the target," said a friend who grew up with Blue in the Wright homes, who declined to give his name. "He never disrespected nobody, never got in any kind of trouble. He just wanted to play ball all the time."
The friend said Blue was home for the summer after finishing a year of college in Champaign, Ill. Blue was funny and outgoing, his friend said, and often went across the street to the University of Illinois at Chicago campus to make friends and look for hoops opponents.
"Every time you saw him, he'd always either try to make you laugh or ask you to play basketball with him," he said. "Dude might've been the happiest guy I ever knew. I can't remember ever seeing him when he didn't have a smile on his face."
For as long as Tammorah Buchanan could remember, she said, Blue had been determined to play professional basketball, with dreams to someday make it to the NBA. She also said he played basketball for Michele Clark High School's team.
"Ball was his life, every day, and he'd always tell people with this big smile on his face that we'd see him in the NBA," said Buchanan, who said she'd known Blue since they were 3 years old. "He was outgoing, exciting, funny, adventurous. ... I hope that spirit lives on with the rest of the community here."
Blue's shooting was the second murder the area has seen this year. In May, a man was shot to death only about a block away.
Some residents in the Wright homes said crime has been on the rise ever since the nearby Newberry Center closed in 2013.
"It feels like we got no support around here, and there's nothing for the kids to do, like sports or jobs or anything, to keep them out of trouble," said Muriel Kyles, who said she's lived in the Near West Side for more than 50 years. "This used to be a beautiful neighborhood, and now it just seems like it's getting worse every summer."
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