Sept. 05--The uncle of an 11-year-old boy fatally wounded Wednesday at his Park Manor neighborhood home has been charged with manslaughter in the child's death.
Eurel Wilford, 19, of Rockford, was charged Friday in the death of his nephew Antwone Earl Price Jr., according to court documents. Wilford was charged with involuntary manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon, said Cook County state's attorney's office spokeswoman Sally Daly.
Officers responded about 9 p.m. Wednesday to a home in the 7400 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue and found Antwone with a gunshot wound, police said.
One of Antwone's friends was playing at the house and was expecting Antwone to walk him home, prosecutors said. While the friend, who is also 11, waited for Antwone outside the house, Antwone called the boy back inside.
When the friend went back inside, Antwone pulled the handgun from behind his back and showed it to his friend, prosecutors said. Then he took the magazine out of the gun but noticed that a bullet remained in the chamber.
The two boys went into a front room, where Wilford was, and Antwone asked Wilford to try and remove the bullet from the gun, according to prosecutors.
Wilford and Antwone then struggled over the gun, prosecutors said. Wilford had his hand on the handle of the gun and was able to take it from Antwone, but the gun fired, hitting the 11-year old in the stomach, prosecutors said.
Wilford told Antwone's friend to lie and tell the dispatcher they found the gun outside, prosecutors said. Wilford told police that before the shooting, Antwone had said he found a silver handgun outside, according to police.
Wilford does not have a concealed-carry permit or a FOID card, prosecutors said.
Wilford told the police when the boy showed him the weapon, he snatched the gun, which accidentally pulled the trigger, striking his nephew in the upper torso. Wilford then wrapped the boy in a blanket, and someone at the home called 911, reports said.
Antwone was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A small handgun was found on a couch in the living room, as well as a multicolored blanket Wilford had used to wrap the child in, according to reports.
Wilford was ordered held in lieu of $100,000 bail in a hearing Saturday before Cook County Judge Laura Marie Sullivan.
Antwone was one of of 12 people shot and killed within 36 hours in Chicago.
On May 22, 2013, the boy's father, Antwone Earl Price Sr., and another man were found fatally shot in Price's parked white Camaro in the Englewood neighborhood. At the time of his death, his grandmother, Myrtis Price, said her son, Anthony Price, who was the elder Antwone Price's father, was shot and killed in 2000.
The Chicago Tribune's Rosemary Regina Sobol, Deanese Williams-Harris and Liam Ford and contributed.
