Third man convicted in teen boy’s 2011 shooting death

A third man has been convicted of the 2011 shooting death of a teenage boy who was caught in the middle of gang gunfire while playing basketball in a Bronzeville neighborhood park.

Vito Richmond

Vito Richmond, 20, was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the shooting that killed 13-year-old Darius Brown, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. He faces up to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.

Aramis Beachem, 24; and Jamal Streeter, 20, were convicted in January of first-degree murder for Brown’s death, according to the statement. Both were sentenced to 50 years.

Brown was playing basketball at Metcalfe Park in the 4200 block of South State Street about 5 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2011, when Beachem, Streeter, Richmond and a fourth person who was not charged pulled up in two separate vehicles and fired at least nine shots at rival gang members, prosecutors said.

Brown was shot in the back and taken to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, where he died several hours later, police said at the time. Another man who was wounded in the shooting has since recovered, according to prosecutors.

Other people in the park dived to the ground when the vehicle pulled up and a man inside opened fire with a handgun. None of them thought Darius — the park’s best player — was the intended target.

The shooting was the result of an ongoing gang war between rival Gangster Disciple factions, police said at the time.

Keith Daniels, an informant in the case who helped lead investigators to Beachem and Streeter, was himself gunned down by an escaped parolee in April 2013 after being revealed as an informant in unsealed federal court documents.