Teen killed, another wounded in Kenwood shooting: ‘It was crazy’

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Chicago Police investigate in the 4700 block of South Ellis in the Kenwood neighborhood, where one teenager was killed and another was injured in a shooting early Sunday, July 17, 2016. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

One teenager was killed and another was wounded in a shooting early Sunday outside Michelle Fulton’s bedroom window in the Kenwood neighborhood on the South Side.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Fulton, 49, said. “I’ve seen a lot, but nothing like this.”

The teenagers were walking in the alley about 12:50 a.m. in the 4700 block of South Ellis when a red minivan pulled up and someone inside opened fire, according to Chicago Police.

A 15-year-old boy, identified as Travon D. Smith of the 7300 block of South Dorchester, was shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:15 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The other boy, 16, suffered a gunshot wound to the left leg and was taken to the hospital in serious condition.

The teenager’s body could be seen lying a few yards from at least eight shell casings on the alley sidewalk next to Fulton’s three-story apartment building.

Fulton, who has lived on the first floor of the building for 17 years, said she was watching season four of “Game Of Thrones” when she heard eight gunshots. When she looked out of her window into the alley, she saw one boy lying in a pool of blood and the other running, but limping, and yelling, “Help me somebody, help me! He shot my brother, they killed my brother! He’s dead, he’s dead!”

Fulton said she saw the minivan drive out of the alley, then turn north on Ellis and stop at the red light on 47th Street, before completing a left turn.

“They waited for the light to change before they turned left,” she said. “It was crazy.”

The boy with the leg wound rested against one of several cars parked outside the building while he waited for paramedics to arrive, Fulton added.

A mother of three, Fulton said she is worried about her 19-year-old son.

“The streets are calling his name every day, that’s why I’m talking,” she said, adding that she will never forget the sight of the teenager’s body lying in her alley.

“I’m kind of undone tonight,” she said. “You hear about it, but when you see something like this happen — I have a son, it could’ve been him. Thank God it wasn’t, but that boy, he was somebody’s son, too.”

Chicago Police investigate in the 4700 block of South Ellis in the Kenwood neighborhood, where one teenager was killed and another was injured in a shooting early Sunday, July 17, 2016. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Chicago Police investigate in the 4700 block of South Ellis in the Kenwood neighborhood, where one teenager was killed and another was injured in a shooting early Sunday, July 17, 2016. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

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