CHICAGO _ In what may have been a case of mistaken identity, a 15-year-old boy who was helping his stepdad deliver the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers was shot and killed Sunday morning on the city's Southwest Side, police said.
Police responded to the shooting about 6:45 a.m. in the 5100 block of West 47th Street in the LeClaire Courts neighborhood, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.
The shooter, driving a white vehicle, first rear-ended the car with Brian Jasso and his stepfather, pulled alongside, then opened fire, shooting the boy in the head, police said.
Jasso, from the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, was pronounced dead at 6:56 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
"Right now we're trying to retrace the steps leading up to this tragic shooting," Guglielmi said.
The stepfather is a longtime newspaper carrier for a distribution company in the city that contracts with Tribune parent company Tronc for delivery services, a Chicago Tribune spokeswoman confirmed.
The man works as an independent contractor and typically delivers the Chicago Tribune as well as other newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times and The New York Times, officials said.
"We are saddened and stunned by this news," said Bruce Dold, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Tribune. "Our hearts go out to the family of the young man who was killed."
Guglielmi said a gang war has been running rampant in that area for the better part of the year involving two predominantly Hispanic gangs. He said neither the teenager nor his stepfather is part of a gang but the people responsible for the shooting may be.
"We looked at the backgrounds of the individuals who were targeted, and they have no gang affiliations," Guglielmi said. "We're looking to see whether it could've been a case of mistaken identity."
The Tribune has previously reported that some warring gangs often use high-powered rifles in the commission of crimes. Three people were shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood Saturday night, two of them fatally, in a shooting that involved rifles, according to police.
Guglielmi said police are investigating whether the Chicago Lawn shooting to the southeast is connected to the shooting death of the 15-year-old because of the proximity to the gang rivalry.
"At this early stage, we're looking at the location as the common denominator to the incidents," he said.
Authorities from the police department's Area Central are sending out members of the gang team and the gun team to saturate the area in response to the spiking violence, which was ordered by Deputy Chief Kevin Ryan, Guglielmi said.
