2 teens shot to death near Sox-35th Red Line station

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CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) - A fight outside an alternative high school ended with gunfire and two teenage boys dead at a bustling South Side intersection outside the Sox-35th Street CTA Red Line station during the Wednesday afternoon rush hour.

About 3 p.m., the boys got into an argument with another group of males near Youth Connection Charter School at 10 W. 35th St., Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said during a press conference near the shooting scene.

The boys ran west on 35th Street and the group chased them, with as many as three opening fire at the intersection of LaSalle — just steps outside the Red Line station, Johnson said.

Terry Wilson, 16, was shot in the face, chest and abdomen, and he died at Stroger Hospital, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Teandre C. Belcher died from unspecified gunshot wound at the University of Chicago Medical Center, authorities said.

Both boys lived in the nearby Wentworth Gardens neighborhood.

The shooters took off in a beige Ford Explorer last seen going north on LaSalle and then east on 31st Street, Johnson said.

At least one of the boys was thought to be a Youth Connection student.

The school’s director of operations referred questions to Chicago Public Schools officials, who declined to comment, citing student privacy laws.

The shooting happened in broad daylight on a busy street separating the Red Line and Metra stations, just down the street from the Illinois Institute of Technology campus and barely two blocks away from Chicago police headquarters.

“We have off-duty and on-duty police officers traveling this area all the time, constantly,” Johnson said.

Police had “a very good eyewitness” and “some very promising leads,” according to Johnson, who noted that detectives were reviewing numerous surveillance video feeds in the area.

The police investigation also snarled Wednesday evening traffic to nearby Guaranteed Rate Field, where the White Sox were set to play their final home game of the season.

No one was in custody late Wednesday as Area South detectives investigate. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or submit anonymous tips online.