CHICAGO _ A 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were charged Sunday with murder in the shooting death of Jovan Wilson, the grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill..
Tariq M. Harris, 16, and Dijae T. Banks, 17, were charged as adults with first-degree murder in an attack that started as a fight over clothes and shoes, police and prosecutors said. The two were taken into custody Saturday.
Harris and Banks, both of Chicago, of the 12000 block of South Indiana Avenue, appeared before Cook County Judge James Brown wearing juvenile detention center sweatshirts and with their heads bowed.
Brown ordered both held with no bail in a scathing address.
"The murdering of a young boy over articles of clothing (and) gym shoes demonstrates a total callous disregard over the precious nature of human life," Brown said. "The citizens of this city need to be protected from these defendants."
Jovan, 15, was killed at his Englewood home around 7 p.m. Friday, police said.
Jovan was home with an uncle, a family friend, his 16-year-old sister, 14-year-old brother and 8-year-old brother when Harris and Banks arrived and knocked on the back door, according to Assistant State's Attorney Bryan Grissman.
Jovan and his sister went to the door and looked out, recognizing Harris and Banks as friends of the brother, Grissman said. Banks and the brother had been trading clothes for weeks before the shooting. Banks said she wanted to retrieve some shoes she had lent to the brother in exchange for a pair of pants, Grissman said.
The brother did not want to return the shoes without first retrieving the pants he had lent to Banks, Grissman said. When the brother opened the door a crack to talk to Banks, Harris and Banks forced open the door and entered the home, Grissman said. Banks pulled out a handgun and began threatening Jovan's sister with it, Grissman said.
Banks then handed the gun to Harris and began to fight with Jovan's sister, Grissman said. As this altercation was going on, Harris repeatedly slid the safety mechanism on the gun back and forth, Grissman said. Jovan intervened to break up the fight between Banks and his sister.
Banks then punched Jovan in the face with a closed fist, and Jovan reciprocated by punching Banks, Grissman said. Banks became angry that Harris "was allowing the siblings to treat her this way," Grissman said.
Harris took a step back, raised the gun and fired it once, Grissman said, striking Jovan in the neck. As Jovan fell to the ground, Harris and Banks fled the home through the back door, Grissman said.
Investigators initially believed the attack began as a home invasion but revised that once they learned the teenagers had a history with one another.
"This was not random but was egregious and senseless to use a gun over a fight for clothes," police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Harris and Banks turned themselves to a police station, according to a police report.
At the time of the shooting, Banks was on probation for a robbery conviction. Banks is a high school student who has worked as a baby-sitter, according to police and prosecutors.
Jovan was a high school sophomore.
Davis had just returned to Chicago from Washington and was in his office when his son Stacey Wilson, Jovan's father, called him with news of the shooting.
Davis said gun violence is a problem society deals with every day and reflected on how he's attended multiple funerals for other slain teenagers.
Violence has increased significantly this year in Chicago to levels not seen since the 1990s, and several people with prominent connections have been killed in addition to Davis' grandson.
In mid-August, Arshell Dennis, a 19-year-old college student and the son of a Chicago police officer, was shot to death in the Wrightwood neighborhood on the Southwest Side. About two weeks later, Nykea Aldridge, 32, a cousin of Chicago Bulls star Dwyane Wade, was killed while pushing her baby in a stroller on the South Side.
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(Grace Wong, Rosemary Regina Sobol, Elvia Malagon, Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Dawn Rhodes and Jeremy Gorner contributed to this report.)
