Honor roll student gunned down on way to Tilden High School: ‘Our lives changed completely’

Police said the masked shooters also injured two men who were sitting in a van, and a person of interest is in custody.

Police said the masked shooters also injured two men who were sitting in a van, and a person of interest is in custody.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Family and friends of Pedro Ramirez described the 17-year-old as a straight As, honor roll student at Tilden High School, where he was the soccer team’s captain and played on the volleyball team.

He was headed to school on Tuesday morning when, police say, he was shot multiple times in the city’s Back of the Yards neighborhood and later died.

“He always said, ‘I will never miss school unless I’m very sick, or unless I’m dying,’” said Mario Rosales, Ramirez’s best friend. “He actually died, so it really hurts my heart about those words that he said now.”

As a small memorial grows near the scene at South Throop and West 50th streets, so does the heartache and utter shock for Ramirez’s loved ones.

“Our lives changed completely, and this is like a dream,” said Eloisa Garcia, Ramirez’s mother.

“It’s too much violence in a streets, in the morning. He was just going to school. That’s all he was doing,” Asucena Velasquez, Ramirez’s mother and Garcia’s partner, told ABC7 in Spanish.

More than 80 evidence markers littered the ground where the junior student was gunned down while walking to the bus stop to head to Tilden High School.

“One point, you’re just talking, and then from another, he’s just gone. And it is very hard to just, like, put that in your mind just that you’re never going to see him again,” said Adelynn Peña, Ramirez’s girlfriend.

At least three masked gunmen jumped out of their black Jeep and started shooting just after 7:30 a.m. Ramirez was shot in the body multiple times and was pronounced dead at Comer Children’s Hospital.

“I saw them pick up the backpack. He was laying. They were doing CPR, the cops. There were bystanders before trying to help him before the cops arrived,” a witness named Vicky said. “I don’t think that boy was doing anything bad. I think he was going to school. He had a backpack. He was still a baby.”

The gunfire also injured two men, 55 and 61 years old, who were sitting in a now-bullet-riddled red Dodge Caravan.

CPD said the 61-year-old was shot in the back, and the 55-year-old was shot in the right arm.

The Dodge’s driver kept on going for a half mile before pulling into a nearby tire shop in the 5000-block of South Ashland Avenue for help.

“I saw a car at high speed, coming down the alley with a flat tire, so first thing I thought, it was a customer looking to get a tire repair,” said tire shop employee Leo. “The passenger got shot in the back, as he informed me. And the driver, I guess, bullet ricocheted, and it sliced his forearm by the elbow.”

While police initially reported the two injured men as being in critical condition, the tire shop employee said both appeared to be reasonably OK. One of them was potentially released from Stroger Hospital, where they were being treated, by Tuesday afternoon.

In the meantime, police, who had apparently identified the vehicle carrying the gunmen, chased them down to West 44th Street and South Wolcott Avenue.

The suspects left behind the Jeep and an assault-style rifle, laying in the grass, but not before they hit one man’s grey Hyundai, sideswiping it on the passenger’s side.

“They were trying to get away from police,” the Hyundai’s owner, Anibal, told ABC7 in Spanish. “It was just one lane, and he hit me because he couldn’t get through.”

Not one of the witnesses who spoke with ABC7 on Tuesday wanted to show their faces on camera, a sign of how much this shooting rattled those in the community.

One of those witnesses also told ABC7 he saw police apprehend at least one suspect after giving them chase through the nearby gangways.

CPD confirmed on Tuesday night that a person of interest is in custody. Police did not immediately offer details about a potential motive for the shooting.

“Right now, I’m still in shock. Tomorrow is going to be a different day, and I don’t even know how we’re going to be able to handle this,” Garcia said.

A GoFundMe for Ramirez’s family can be found here.

SOURCE: https://abc7chicago.com/post/chicago-shooting-today-teen-killed-2-others-critically-hurt-5000-block-throop-street-police-say/19174824/