COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A man has been charged in the 2015 slaying that led to the vicious "execution-style" murder of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, prosecutors said Thursday.
Tyshawn was playing near swings in Auburn Gresham on Nov. 2 when a gunman lured the boy into an alley and shot him multiple times, according to prosecutors.
RELATED: Tyshawn Lee's Killer Laughed About Murder, Wanted To Kill More Kids: Police
Authorities have long said the slaying was retaliation for an Oct. 13 gang shooting in which Tracey Morgan was murdered and Morgan's 56-year-old mother was shot in her arm. Tracey Morgan's brother, Corey Morgan, was so enraged that he reportedly threatened to shoot "grandmas, mamas, kids and all" in retaliation.
Prosecutors on Thursday charged 23-year-old Khalil Yameen — who is allegedly in the same gang as Tyshawn's dad — in the Oct. 13 shooting that left Tracey Morgan dead.
Cook County Judge James Brown on Thursday denied Yameen bail, dubbing him "a danger to the community."
Earlier this year, Brown described Tyshawn's murder as "a crime that has shocked the city to its core. It actually shocked the entire nation ... that a 9-year-old boy could be executed while playing basketball because he was related to a gang member ... through no fault of his own."
Tyshawn Lee, 9, was killed Nov. 2.
According to prosecutors, both Tyshawn's slaying and the Oct. 13 slaying stemmed from "an ongoing gang war" between the BBG (Bang Bang Gang)/Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones and the Killaward faction of the Gangster Disciples.
Khalil Yameen and Tyshawn's father, Pierre Stokes, are believed to be Gangster Disciples, while Tracey Morgan and the three men charged in Tyshawn's murder — Corey Morgan, Dwright Boone-Doty and Kevin Edwards — are reportedly Black P Stones.
On Oct. 13, Tracey Morgan's mother was driving Morgan home from a mandatory parole meeting when she noticed a silver sedan following them, Assistant State's Attorney Jamie Santini said during a bond hearing Thursday.
That car soon cut in front of Tracey Morgan and his mother, while a second vehicle pulled up from behind — boxing in the Morgan family near 83rd Street and Lafayette Avenue, prosecutors said.
At that point, Yameen and an accomplice got out of the two cars, pulled guns and began shooting at Morgan's mother's car, Santini said.
Tracey Morgan was fatally shot 11 times in his arm, abdomen, thigh, buttocks and foot, according to prosecutors. His mother was shot once in her arm and was able to eventually drive to a nearby gas station for help after the two other vehicles left the scene, Santini said.
Police would later recover 17 shell casings and six bullet fragments, according to prosecutors.
Both Tracey Morgan and his mother were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where Morgan was pronounced dead.
Yameen is charged with first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder. Authorities said a witness and tape-recorded conversations helped identify Yameen as one of the shooters.
Yameen previously was convicted of retail theft and residential burglary. He has a pending retail theft case.
The Oct. 13 shooting led to multiple retaliatory incidents, Santini said, including an Oct. 18 shooting that killed 19-year-old Brianna Jenkins and the Nov. 2 shooting that killed 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee.
After the shooting of Morgan family members, Corey Morgan, Boone-Doty and Edwards went out daily, armed with guns, looking for someone to shoot, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 2, the group was riding in Edwards' black SUV when they spotted Tyshawn at Dawes Park near 80th Street and Damen Avenue, prosecutors said.
The boy was playing on a swing when Boone-Doty got out of the SUV, walked toward Tyshawn and began dribbling a basketball the boy had brought with him to the park, according to Santini.
That's when Boone-Doty allegedly lured Tyshawn into an alley by offering to buy the boy anything he wanted from a nearby corner store. Boone-Doty is accused of shooting Tyshawn multiple times in the alley — striking the boy in his head, back, right forearm and right hand.
Several witnesses identified Boone-Doty, Corey Morgan and Edwards as the men fleeing the scene shortly after the slaying.
After the shooting, the three men bought cleaning supplies and tried to clean the inside and outside of Edwards' black SUV, Santini said. The men reset the vehicle's GPS and abandoned the SUV, prosecutors said, but police were able to recover GPS data.
In March, Tyshwan's father was charged with attempted murder in the shooting three people, including Corey Morgan's girlfriend and two of the woman's nephews.
Tyshawn's father, 25-year-old Pierre Stokes, is charged with attempted murder.
Prosecutors have described the shooting as one of the latest in the "ongoing gang war" that killed Tyshawn.
Stokes allegedly said, "I'm going to kill you, b----," before opening fire in an Auburn Gresham parking lot on March 8. The attack happened a half-mile from where Tyshawn was killed in what police have called a "hateful act of treachery."
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