Boy, 16, charged with killing three people in Chatham, including 14-year-old friend

After his mother’s death two years ago, 14-year-old Amere Deese befriended an older boy who became a big brother figure.

Thursday morning, that 16-year-old boy was charged with shooting and killing Deese and two other people in a home in Chatham last month.

“They were friends,” Cynthia Jones, Amere’s grandmother, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “To the point where they were wearing my grandson’s clothes, shoes, you know. For somebody to be that close to you and then to turn around and do what he did ...

“I’m really just beyond. ... How could you do something like that?” she asked.

Antonio Velasco, 16, was charged as an adult with three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder of a fourth person who was shot in the Feb. 25 attack. Police say Velasco opened fire in the home in the 8000 block of South Vincennes Avenue after deciding he wanted to steal a rifle.

Jones said she was “grateful” Velasco had been apprehended, but she feels an overwhelming “sense of hurt.”

“Hurt in the way you took my grandson’s life, hurt in the way you befriended my grandson, you gained his confidence,” Jones said. “And then hurt for all the families involved, including his parents, because I know they never thought that they would have to deal with something like this. So I have a lot of anger and hurt at the same time.”

The four victims — Amere; Ladeverett West-Ringgold, 20; Randy Graham, 36; and a 16-year-old boy — had been hanging out in a bedroom and playing with the rifle, which was eventually set on the floor behind a television in the room, prosecutors said.

Velasco showed up later with his 13-year-old brother, and the group smoked marijuana, prosecutors said. At some point, Velasco allegedly left the room and returned holding a handgun with an extended magazine.

“Up that chop,” he told the group, a reference to wanting the rifle, according to prosecutors.

Velasco’s younger brother picked up the rifle, and Velasco opened fire, fatally striking Deese, West-Ringold and Graham and wounding the 16-year-old in his leg, prosecutors said.

West-Ringgold’ mother heard the shots but thought it was a video game, according to a police report. Prosecutors said she saw Velasco in the hallway as he fled with the rifle, then found the victims.

Two people believed to be Velasco and his brother were recorded by a surveillance camera in the neighborhood holding a rifle in a nearby backyard shortly afterward, but the footage did not clearly capture their faces, prosecutors said.

The brothers were recorded by another surveillance camera later that day when they arrived at their home together.

Velasco, from the Grand Crossing neighborhood, was taken into custody Monday in south suburban Hazel Crest while walking down the street, according to his arrest report. He was allegedly identified as one of the gunman by several witnesses, including the surviving 16-year-old boy.

The police report stated that Velasco fled from uniformed officers and that an officer was injured taking Velasco into custody while conducting an “emergency takedown.”

Neither the handgun used in the shooting nor the rifle have been recovered, prosecutors said.

Police officials on Thursday said there was a second “person of interest” in the investigation who was not in custody, but did not say if that was the 13-year-old.

A spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said there were no charges pending against Velasco’s younger brother, but declined to provide more information.

Defense attorney Patrick Fagan said Velasco lived with his family and has a child of his own. He asked that his client be released pending trial, noting he had no other criminal background.

Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers argued for Velasco’s detention, saying he posed a danger to the community if released.

“This is not a random crime. …He knew these people, and he shot them in cold blood and ran out of the house,” the prosecutor said. “I don’t know how you get more dangerous than that.”

Judge Kelly McCarthy agreed to hold Velasco in custody pending trial, noting that “the only motivation here seems to be, I want that rifle. And now three people are dead.”

Deese’s funeral was held Friday, and family is still working to “adjust” to life without him, his grandmother said.

“This baby had a very healthy, fruitful life ahead of him,” Jones said. “And this young man just took that away from us. So it’s hard right now just even trying to make the adjustment of knowing that I will never see him being the man, the father, the husband. I will never get a chance to see that.”