Concert to raise money for teen musician shot during police pursuit of bank robber

A concert Saturday at a North Side music venue will raise money for Rylan Wilder, the 15-year-old guitar player who was shot by a stray bullet as police pursued a bank robbery suspect into a music school.

The all-ages show at Martyrs’, 3855 N. Lincoln Ave., will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Rylan’s band, Monarchy Over Monday, was one of four Chicago bands — mostly composed of high school students — booked weeks ago to perform Saturday.

But with Rylan, a student at Lane Tech High School, recovering from gunshot wounds to his abdomen and left arm, his band pulled out of the show.

The three remaining bands — Mock Nine, Friko and Neptune’s Core — will play to raise money that will go toward a GoFundMe account benefitting Rylan that has raised more than $44,000 since it went live Sunday.

“He’s unable to play, so the bands and the venue agreed to just make it a benefit for Rylan,” said Martyrs’ owner Ray Quinn, who has sons a few years older than Rylan.

“We wanted to let him know that even though he can’t be here, we all support him and are hoping he pulls through this as well as possible.”

Rylan was accidentally shot Nov. 19 as police pursued a bank robbery suspect, who ran into UpBeat Music and Arts in the 4300 block of West Irving Park Road, a music school where he worked as an intern.

His mother, Lucia Morales, spoke with reporters Monday and described the injury to her son’s forearm and the lengths surgeons at Lurie Children’s Hospital have gone to try to repair the damage.

“This whole part of his arm is pretty much gone,” Morales said, indicating a playing-card-sized hole in her son’s forearm.

Morales said Rylan asked her, “Will I ever be able to play guitar again?”

She told him all is possible with “positive thoughts,” but said she couldn’t make any promises.

“At this moment, we don’t know if he will recover from that,” she told reporters Monday.

Rylan was also hit in the abdomen, but his mother said that bullet did not strike any vital organs.

The shooting stemmed from a bank robbery in Des Plaines that led to a police chase into Chicago. One of the alleged robbers, Maurice Murphy, was in custody Tuesday, having been arrested not far from the bank. He faces federal bank robbery charges.

The other man, Christopher Willis, carjacked a Buick and sped down the Kennedy Expressway before exiting at Irving Park, where he crashed when he encountered police. Willis then opened fire, striking a veteran Chicago police officer.

Willis then ran into UpBeat Music. When Willis raised his gun, a Des Plaines police officer shot and killed him, according to CPD. Rylan was accidentally shot by Des Plaines police, CPD has said.