Bond denied for teen charged with fatal Brighton Park shooting

A Cook County judge denied bond Sunday for a 17-year-old boy accused of shooting a man to death as he sat in a vehicle Thursday afternoon in the Southwest Side Brighton Park neighborhood.

Eliseo Acosta is charged as an adult with first-degree murder for the attack that killed 18-year-old Ricardo C. Mendez-Bucio in the 4600 block of South Western, authorities aid.

Mendez-Bucio was the front-seat passenger in a vehicle stopped at a red light on Western, waiting to turn left onto 47th Street, when Acosta walked by with a fellow Satan Disciples gang member, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

Acosta began showing gang signs and yelling at the car, in front of pedestrians and others in cars, prosecutors said. He allegedly walked to Mendez-Bucio’s side of the vehicle, pulled a handgun and fired one shot, striking him in the chest.

The victim, a driver and a back-seat passenger had put their hands up before the shooting, prosecutors said. After the shooting, the driver pulled the car into a gas station one block south, where police responded, the state’s attorney’s office said. Acosta had run off.

Mendez-Bucio was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead a half-hour later, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the 4500 block of South Paulina.

Witnesses identified Acosta as the shooter, and he was later arrested, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Cook County Judge Peggy Chiampas denied bond for Acosta on Sunday.