Fight over boy led girl to kill another girl, 14

A 14-year-old girl shot and killed another 14-year-old girl because of an argument over a boy, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said today as murder charges were filed.

The .38-caliber handgun used to kill Endia Martin Monday afternoon had been stolen from a car on April 13 and was brought to the scene by someone who knew the suspect and knew "there was going to be a fight," McCarthy said.

"What would have been, under any other circumstance, probably a fistfight between 14-year-old girls, because they were fighting over a boy, turned into a murder," McCarthy told reporters. "You introduce a firearm and you have a murder."

The suspect has been charged as a juvenile with murder, and her 24-year-old uncle and a 17-year-old boy are also facing charges.

"It appears that the two individuals we have in custody brought the gun to the scene – may have brought the gun to the scene – and were trying to discard the gun afterwards," McCarthy said.

The superintendent took the opportunity to yet again criticize Illinois gun laws. He noted that the gun used in the slaying was legally owned and legally stored in a car when it was stolen.

"There was a legal gun that became an illegal gun," he said, saying state law should be changed to require guns to be kept more securely.

"In this case, the simple fact that the law states that you can store a firearm in a vehicle is absolutely insane," McCarthy said. "Those guns need to be in lock boxes, in safes, in people’s residences or on their person.”

McCarthy could not say whether the dispute started on Facebook, as Endia's family has said.

"Whether or not it was over social media, we haven't been able to prove at this point," McCarthy said. "And at the end of the day, I'm not sure it's that relevant. What's relevant is that there was a firearm introduced into a fistfight."

Endia's stepfather, Kent Kennedy, said Endia and the suspect had been feuding on Facebook. "They had words and she gunned our daughter down. For what? What reason would another girl gun down another child?

"It's senseless," he added. "Kids are dying so young nowadays. It's senseless. Parents shouldn't have to bury no child."

Kennedy said the family recently moved Endia from one school to another closer to home to keep her safe. Endia was killed about half a mile from her South Side home.

"No place in Chicago is safe for teenagers nowadays," he said. "No place is safe."

Endia was walking home from Tilden Career Community Academy, where she was a freshman, when the other girl approached, pulled the gun from her waistband and opened fire around 4:30 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of West Garfield Boulevard, according to police.

Endia was hit in the back collapsed to the ground while the other girls scattered, including a 16-year-old girl who was wounded in the arm and ran behind the home, witnesses told WGN-TV.

Endia was taken to Comer Children's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The 16-year-old girl was taken to St. Bernard Hospital and Healthcare Center, where her condition was stabilized, police said.

The suspect was arrested about 20 minutes after the shooting, police said.

Standing outside the emergency room Monday night, Kennedy said his stepdaughter was "14 years old, beautiful, nice spirit, active in sports. She loved music, loved to dance."

"No child needs to be gunned down like a dog in the street. Nobody, period," he said. 

Addressing the shooter and witnesses, he added: "This is not going to go away. . .We are not going to rest until you are prosecuted to the fullest. You, the people who assisted you, the crowd that walked over with the person with the gun – you're all involved and you're all guilty."

Endia and the 16-year-old girl were among at least seven people shot in the city late Monday and early Tuesday morning.

So far this year, more than 50 children 16 or younger have been shot in Chicago, according to a Tribune analysis.

Monday's shooting comes little more than a week after five children, ranging in age from 11 to 15, were shot and wounded in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side. The children had been playing at a park near an elementary school and were walking home when a car pulled up and someone inside opened fire, police said.