One Year After Tyshawn Lee's Brutal Murder, Violence Is Worse

Tyshawn Lee, 9, was shot and killed in a South Side alley.

Karla Lee

CHICAGO — It's been one year since the slaying of 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee, but the boy's death has not become a turning point for Chicago in the way some hoped it would.

On Nov. 2, 2015, gang rivals of Lee's father lured the boy from a park, saying they would buy him whatever he wanted, prosecutors have said. Instead, they took Lee to an alley behind his home and fatally shot him, prosecutors said.

The men originally wanted to torture Lee by cutting off his fingers and ears, said Anita Alvarez, Cook County state's attorney.

The slaying was an "assassination," said then-Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, and Lee's death gained international attention. City leaders, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel, tried to use Lee's death as an example of how gun violence had been "normalized" in Chicago and things needed to change.

Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured into an alley and executed, likely because of his family's gang ties.

Facebook/Karla Lee

"When a 9-year-old son is executed in retaliation against his father by someone who knew the mother, what does that say? We have normalized gun violence," Emanuel said during a December speech to City Council.

Later, he added, "All of us adults must set a higher standard of behavior for our children and help them understand that people can work out their problems responsibly and fairly with mutual respect. We need to reset our norms, our expectations and our values."

But violence has worsened in the year since Lee's death, with shootings and homicides rising dramatically: Chicago has already seen about 628 murders so far this year, while there were just 494 in all of 2015. Just this October, 78 people were killed, a 278 percent increase from the 28 people killed last October.

Rev. Michael Pfleger, an anti-violence activist on the South Side, had been among those who hoped Lee's death could be a point of change. Shortly before Lee's funeral, he said the 9-year-old's death was an "embarrassing and shameful new low" for the city.

"We've got to find the courage to address the roots of this violence: unemployment, poor education, a lack of strong homes and this proliferation of guns," Pfleger said at the time. "We've gotta have courage to go beyond the murder and go to all the roots that help produce murder, including this moral low we've reached, and whether Chicago wants to wear this mantle or not."

But on Wednesday, hours after another shooting left a man dead in Chicago, Pfleger railed against this year's uptick in violence in a post on Facebook.

"I really thought [Lee's] Death would be a Turning Point in Chicago. From the Community to the Politicians...But it obviously wasn't," Pfleger wrote. "WHAT THE HELL IS IT GOING TO TAKE, before we in the Community and before the Powers of this City say ENOUGH!!!!"

The violence is something Karla Lee, Tyshawn's mother, predicted in the days before her son's funeral. Then, as she sat in a church pew and wept for her son, she said the shootings were just going to "keep happening."

What's happened in the year since Lee was slain:

• Nov. 2, 2015: 9-Year-Old 'Executed' in South Side Alley: 'We're Living in a Horror Movie'

• Nov. 3: 'This is the Blood of a 9-Year-Old': Neighbors Seek Answers In Boy's Murder

Murdered 9-Year-Old Boy's Mother Pleads For Someone To Turn In Shooter

• Nov. 4: Slain Boy's Dad Says Tyshawn Was Too Young To Be Targeted: 'He Ain't 18'

• Nov. 5: Tyshawn Lee, 9, Was 'Targeted, Lured To This Spot and Murdered': McCarthy

• Nov. 9: Tyshawn Lee's Mom: Violence Will 'Keep Happening' Despite Son's Death

• Nov. 10: Tyshawn Lee Funeral Brings Heartbreaking Scenes of Children Saying Goodbye

• Nov. 23: Person of Interest in Tyshawn Lee Case Out on Bail: Report

• Nov. 24: Person of Interest in Tyshawn Lee Case Fearful For His Safety: Attorney

• Nov. 27: Gang Member Watched Tyshawn Lee Play on Swings Before Murder: Prosecutors

• March 8: Tyshawn Lee's Killer Laughed About Murder, Wanted To Kill More Kids: Police