The teenage gunman who came knocking at Khaliyah Wilson’s door on a November afternoon three years ago was looking for a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, Cook County prosecutors said.
On Monday, Wilson peered into a cardboard box holding the black sneakers as she sat on the witness stand in the trial of two teens charged with the murder of her younger brother, Javon Wilson, who was shot inside the apartment as a fight over the return of the Jordan’s quickly turned deadly.
Javon was the grandson of U.S. Rep. Danny Davis but prosecutors have been barred from mentioning that teenager was related to the 12-term congressman.
Alleged gunman Tariq Harris and co-defendant Dijae Banks were acquaintances of the Wilsons, and when they arrived at the family’s Englewood apartment after school on the evening of Nov. 18, 2016, Khaliyah Wilson said she was mostly afraid that her mom would come home with dinner and be upset to find uninvited guests.
Harris was 16 at the time of the shooting; Banks was 17.
Banks had swapped the Jordans for a pair of pants with the Wilsons’ 14-year-old brother, Jeremy, and Javon refused to return the gym shoes without first getting back the pants, prosecutors said. Banks had brandished a pistol at Khaliyah Wilson when she’d tried to kick them out of the apartment, and the argument escalated into a hair-pulling, fist-flailing scuffle that ended when Harris fired a single shot from a pistol he got from Banks, prosecutors said.
As Javon fell to the floor, Banks and Harris seemed shocked.
“They stood there for a minute,” Javon’s sister recalled. “(Banks) said ‘I didn’t mean for it to go down like this,’ and (Harris said) ‘I didn’t know what I was doing.’”
Banks and Harris both are charged with murder, home invasion and robbery counts.
In opening statements at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse Monday, lawyers for the two defendants did not seem to dispute the facts of the shooting, but said that the teens hung out at the house, seemingly in a bid to beat the home invasion charges.
Wilson said she had exchanged “flirtatious” text messages with Banks on Facebook, but said that they were not friends at the time of the shooting. Wilson said Banks and Harris forced their way into the apartment after Javon went to the door to demand the pants back.
When she looked up Banks’ Facebook profile the night of the shooting to provide a picture for police officers, one photo showed Banks pointing a pistol at the camera.
“When you saw that photo, what did you do?” Assistant State’s Attorney Natosha Toller asked.
“I cried,” Wilson said.
Davis was not in the gallery on Monday, and has said he will not attend the trial.
