Oct. 02--Three men targeted a group of boys in their mid-teens outside a Lawndale convenience store in a 2014 shooting that killed a 13-year-old boy and wounded six other people, according to police and prosecutors.
Anthony Harris, Anthony Lyons and Joshua Almore, all 23 years old, have each been charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. The three were ordered held without bond in a hearing before Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr., according to the Cook County state's attorney's office and court records.
Almore and Harris opened fire on a group of people outside the California Food Mart, 735 S. California Ave., at the southwest corner of California and Lexington Street, on July 25, 2014, with Lyons acting as the getaway driver, prosecutors said Thursday.
Samuel "Lil' Sam" Walker, 13, was shot in the face and killed. His father, Samuel Walker, was shot and killed just days later in an apparently unrelated incident.
Friends said the younger Walker had been preparing to start at Manley High School last fall.
Just before 6 p.m. the day of the shooting, a clerk at the store walked out with Samuel, a 14-year-old boy, three 15-year-olds and a 20-year-old man, according to prosecutors.
Waiting kitty-corner in a 2001 Cadillac were Lyons, Almore and Harris, with Lyons in the driver's seat, Almore in the front passenger seat, and Harris in the back seat, prosecutors said.
When the men in the car saw the group come out of the store, Almore got out and opened fire over the roof of the car, shooting at the boys, according to prosecutors. Harris opened fire from inside the car.
Samuel Walker was hit in the head and later died, while the other boys suffered gunshot wounds to their legs, and the 25-year-old clerk suffered a graze wound to the abdomen, prosecutors said.
About 8:35 p.m., detectives were called to a car fire in the 3100 block of West Washington Boulevard, about a mile from the store, and found a tan, four-door Cadillac that had minor fire damage to the carpet in the back of car, prosecutors said.
Police found shell casings inside the car, Lyons' prints on a passenger door, and Harris and Almore's prints on the outside of the car, prosecutors said. Harris' DNA was found on a lighter left inside the car.
Lyons later admitted to being the driver in the shooting, prosecutors said.
When they were arrested this week, Almore and Harris were already in Cook County Jail, awaiting trial in a Jan. 18 robbery and shooting in the 3100 block of West Polk Street, according to prosecutors and court records.
In that attack, a 23-year-old man was shot in the heel that evening, and told police that he had been on the street when a green SUV pulled up and someone fired shots at him, police said at the time. Almore and Harris were arrested that night in connection with the shooting, according to court records.
Lyons is serving a five-year sentence for a Will County case in which he was convicted of unlawful use of a weapon by a felon and possession of a controlled substance, according to prosecutors.
The three are due back in court Oct. 20.
Chicago Tribune's Peter Nickeas contributed.
