A 14-year-old boy who was killed in downtown Chicago during one of two Friday night shootings that also injured eight others has been identified, and his death ruled a homicide.
Armani Floyd died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital at 10:59 p.m. Friday.
“No parent wants to get that terrible, life-altering call,” Johnson said Saturday morning at an unrelated event on the West Side. “It is senseless violence like these shootings that makes us all feel unsafe, and it has left too many families in Chicago reeling.”
Floyd was one of two teenagers found with gunshot wounds lying in the street at 140 S. Dearborn St. after an earlier shooting. Video footage shows several large crowds roaming the street before abruptly scattering, according to a police report. Police recovered three 9-mm casings, one live round and a fired bullet from the area. An 18-year-old man had also been shot in the leg and was taken to the same hospital in serious condition, police said.
The shooting happened less than an hour after an unidentified suspect fired into a crowd of teenagers, wounding seven of them, outside the Chicago Theatre on the 100 block of North State Street shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, according to Chicago police. Officers on patrol heard the gunshots and saw a large group running. Police later recovered three 9-mm casings from the scene of the shooting.
The victims of the first shooting ranged in age from 13 to 17 and came from all over the Chicago area. They were transported to local hospitals in good and fair conditions. Some had graze wounds on their stomach and hips, while others had gunshot wounds on their legs.
Sources said both Friday night shootings were connected to a “teen takeover” that had made the rounds on social media over the previous days. Police reports indicate that teens from as far away as Dolton and Evanston traveled downtown for the gathering after the annual tree-lighting ceremony at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Some social media videos warned people to avoid the Loop due to the possible takeover.
No suspects were in custody in either shooting as of Sunday evening.
The Chicago Tribune’s Caroline Kubzansky, Jake Sheridan and Rebecca Johnson contributed.