13-year-old fatally shot in West Ridge park remembered as a ‘kind-hearted young man’

A 13-year-old boy fatally shot Friday night at a West Ridge park was “at the wrong place at the wrong time,” according to his family.

Lavell Winslow was hanging out at Lerner Park with friends when a gunshot rang out just before 10 p.m., Chicago police and his family told the Sun-Times.

A bystander at the scene, near the 7000 block of North Sacramento Avenue, told investigators he heard a loud pop and saw a group of people running away, police said. He then found Lavell on a bench with a gunshot wound to his head and called for help.

Lavell was rushed to Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead.

The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide.

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Police have not released additional details about the circumstances of the shooting as detectives continue to investigate, and no arrests have been reported.

Ald. Debra Silverstein said in a letter to constituents Saturday investigators believe the shooting may have been an accident.

Reached by phone Saturday, James Winslow, 31, recalled his younger brother as a “kind-hearted young man” who cherished being around his family.

Winslow said he was concerned the group of friends his brother had gone to the park with had begun to “steer him in the wrong.”

“He was, I would say, at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Winslow said. “That was the only safe park in the area, and the crowd he was with, the boys were a little bit older, and they’re supposed to be his friends, and it just didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to.”

Lavell, an 8th grader at West Ridge Elementary School, loved video games, especially Fortnite. He played football and enjoyed watching boxing and basketball, his brother said.

“He was my little brother ... He had a lot of potential,” Winslow said.

“We’re just trying our hardest right now to bear with it.”

Provided by family