Associated Press
CHICAGO -- Cell phone footage showing teens viciously kicking and striking a 16-year-old honors student with splintered railroad ties has ramped up pressure on Chicago officials to address chronic violence that has led to dozens of deaths of city teens each year.
The graphic video showed the fatal beating of Derrion Albert, a sophomore honor roll student. His death was the latest addition to a toll that keeps getting higher: More than 30 students were killed last school year, and the city could exceed that number this year.
Prosecutors charged three teens Monday with fatally beating Albert, who was walking to a bus stop when he got caught up in the mob street fighting, authorities said.
The violence stemmed from a shooting Thursday morning involving two groups of students from different neighborhoods, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County prosecutor's office. When school ended, members of the two groups began fighting near the Agape Community Center.
Prosecutors charged Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, with first-degree murder. They were ordered held without bond Monday, said Andy Conklin, a spokesman for the Cook County prosecutor's office.
Chicago police said charges are pending against a fourth suspect and that they are looking for at least three more suspects, but would not discuss a possible motive for the attack.
Simonton said Albert was a bystander and not part of either group.
Desiyan Bacon, Riley's aunt, said her nephew didn't have anything to do with the beating and was a friend of the victim.
Before 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year in Chicago. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.
This month, the city announced a $30 million project that targets 1,200 high school pupils identified as most at risk to become victims of gun violence, giving them full-time mentors and part-time jobs to keep them off the streets. Some money also will pay for more security guards and to provide safe passage for students forced to travel through areas with active street gangs.
