The 14-year-old sister of a man shot, Aug. 18, in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago was charged with battery and aggravated assault after she reportedly threatened and spit on a female classmate during a verbal altercation outside Riverside-Brookfield High School on Aug. 23 about 9:45 p.m.
According to Riverside police, both the victim and offender are 14-year-old girls from North Riverside who have known each other for several years. The offender reportedly sought out the victim after the Blue and White football scrimmage at the school because the offender was angry, believing the victim had been talking about her brother, who was shot during a reputed gang-related incident in the 2600 block of Ridgeway Avenue in Chicago on Aug. 18.
Published reports and police sources stated that on Aug. 18 about 10 p.m., a 17-year-old boy approached the 18-year-old man, whose family resides in North Riverside, pointed a shotgun at him and pulled the trigger. The 17-year-old shooter was himself wounded by a bullet fired from a handgun during the incident, which remains the subject of a Chicago police investigation.
Both shooting victims survived and were hospitalized. The 18-year-old remained hospitalized as of Monday morning, according to a police source, and reportedly was expected to recover.
He reportedly also was involved in a July 2011 shooting incident in North Riverside, one of three victims targeted by Juan Avalos during a gang-related altercation near the intersection of Traube Street and Hainsworth Avenue.
Avalos fired at least eight rounds at the three, who had confronted Avalos and another man that evening. Avalos recently was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the incident, in which no one was injured.
North Riverside police say the Aug. 18 incident was not connected to the Avalos case. The street on which the Chicago incident occurred reportedly is a gang turf dividing line known as “Border Town.”
According to Riverside police, the Aug. 23 incident outside RBHS was fueled by rumors about the Chicago incident, which had been circulating locally, reportedly by the 14-year-old victim.
The wounded man’s sister reportedly told the victim she would “kill her if she continued to spread these rumors,” according to police. The victim’s father reported the incident to police after being notified of it by his daughter after she got home from the football scrimmage.
Police Chief Thomas Weitzel said officers worked to handle the case over the weekend in order to prevent anything from spilling over at the high school on Monday.
