Mom seeks justice after teen son killed

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -- Tyjuan Poindexter, 14, was shot and killed on Saturday night in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood. His mother is making an emotional plea to the public - asking for help in finding her son's killer.

According to Chicago police and family, Tyjuan had no gang ties.

On Saturday night, a group of five kids, including the 14-year-old, were walking to the basketball courts at Kennicott Park near 44th and Greenwood when shots rang out.  Police say a car drove past them and started shooting.

“You have torn our family apart really tore our family apart,” said Patrice Poindexter, Tyjuan’s aunt.

“I ain’t got nothing anymore, nothing, my baby is gone,” said Michelle Poindexter, Tyjuan’s mother. 

Police say Poindexter was shot in the head and another boy, 15-years-old, was shot in the leg.

“It sounded like a whole bunch of fireworks, that's what it sounded like until I heard a car go off really fast that's when I knew it was gunshots,” said Tawanna Scullark who lives in the neighborhood.

She says the shooting is a shock to what she calls her quiet, full of kids neighborhood.

Police say witnesses told them there was a scuffle at Kennicott Park earlier in the day and maybe the shooting was related, but sources say that didn't happen.  Family members tell us the teenagers never even made it to the park before they were shot at.

Both Poindexter and the 15-year-old who was injured graduated from National Teachers Academy, their principal says he remembers them both.

“Tyjuan was a really active student. He loved to be with his friends. He loved history, specifically American history,” said Isaac Castelaz, the students principal.

He met with the injured 15-year-old in the hospital Sunday afternoon.

“I don't think that he's begun to process it all, but I know that in time he will and he will have his family there and his high school community and of course us at NTA to help him do that,” said Castelaz.

Sunday evening the families of the victims met again at the crime scene.

Michelle Poindexter just wants her son back - the 14-year-old boy who was into wrestling, the son she walked to school every day.

“I don't care whoever did him wrong , whatever he would still help people like me, whoever knows something, please do that for me please? Please?” begged Poindexter, hoping to find her son’s killer.

The principal of NTA says they are inviting graduates back Monday and will have grief counselors on hand.

This shooting happened just three blocks from where Hadiya Pendleton was gunned down in a park in two and a half years ago.

If you know anything about this case, call your local police department.