Fatal shooting of 15-year-old boy in Austin rocks neighborhood

The death of a 15-year-old boy Saturday night in Austin left his community grief-stricken over the popular youth’s killing.

After a shooting around 11 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Long Avenue, police discovered Anton Shaw on the ground outside of an alley with a gunshot wound to his face, Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Shaw, who lived with his grandmother, was a freshman at Foreman College and Career Academy and liked to play basketball.

“Sometimes this city will break your heart,” said Brian Rose, coach of the Foreman Hornets’ basketball team.

“It’s not a bad spot if we could get rid of all this craziness,” said Austin resident Woody Morris about the gun violence in Chicago.

Moments later, seven gunshots rang out just before 2 p.m. in Austin in nearby the 5300 block of West Augusta Boulevard on Sunday afternoon, Chicago police said.

A 21-year-old man had a gunshot wound to the leg and was transported to Mt. Sinai in good condition, Chicago police said.

Dorothy Peavy, 76, who has lived in the area 44 years, had just laid down for bed Saturday night when she heard pops in her alley. She later saw police lights nearby.

Peavy says the solution to violence in Austin starts at home. “Police cannot police every home,” she said, insisting that parents need to be more involved with their children.

James Perkins, 67, has lived in Austin about 30 years. “This is so common around here, it’s like you drinking water,” Perkins said as he sat on his back porch that overlooks the alley where Shaw died.

Shaw is not the only Foreman student to fall victim to violence. On Labor Day weekend in 2016, Damari Hendrix was shot in the head in nearby LaFollette Park.

Police said there were no witnesses in Shaw’s killing and that no one was in custody early Sunday.

Area North detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.

David Struett contributed to this report.