Arthur Jones, a 5th-grader at Holmes Elementary School, was headed to a convenience store with his best friend after school Wednesday to buy soda pop and candy.
They were only two blocks from their homes near 56th and Green Streets, walking with a group of older boys, when his 10-year-old friend heard gunfire.
The friend called out to Arthur, and they tried to run. But a bullet came for Arthur, striking him in the neck.
“He was trying to run home, and that’s when the bullet hit him and he fell,” his friend, shaken but composed, said hours later. “I seen him fall. He yelled. When I looked down at him I saw a hole in his neck and he was bleeding.”
Arthur was taken to University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, where the 10-year-old boy was pronounced dead just after 5 p.m. Police had no one in custody late Wednesday, but officers were checking video from surveillance cameras in the area.
Wentworth Area Cmdr. Pat Walsh said police are investigating whether the shooting might be related to an earlier disturbance in the neighborhood.
“At this point, it appears he was an innocent bystander,” said Monique Bond, Police Department spokeswoman.
People in the neighborhood said there was an earlier fight between gangs.
Arthur was one of nine children born to Rita Perez and Eric Jones, who neighbors said had just moved into their home about 10 months ago.
Arthur had taken school pictures earlier Wednesday, said his mother, who waited with distraught family members at the hospital. She called her son her “best friend,” and said she believed he was in heaven now.
“He was just a beautiful boy. Wonderful, loved to give, wanted to be a pastor,” Perez said. “I hate that he lost life so young.”
Perez pleaded that anyone with information about the shooting call Chicago police.
“He happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said. “I’m not mad at anybody, but whoever’s got any information, I would … appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.”
Isolene Perez, Arthur’s aunt, said she too hoped that whoever killed her nephew was caught.
“When you see it [violence on TV] you thank God it’s not your family, and you say a little prayer for their family,” she said. “Now it’s us that need some prayers.”
Outside his home Wednesday night, Arthur’s father wept as he hugged family members. Arthur’s cousin, Marcel Perez, 17, said Arthur loved “smack-down” professional wrestling and model cars, and he had one of the best smiles in the neighborhood.
“All the girls used to tell him he had the prettiest smile when he was happy, and he was always happy,” his cousin said.
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He loved going to church, his cousin said, and even had his own “favorite little suit.
“We used to wrestle all the time and I would let him win, because I got a little weight on him,” his cousin said. “But one time, he caught me by surprise, and got me with a ‘Stone Cold stunner.’ [a professional wrestler’s move] We both died laughing.”
The mother of Arthur’s best friend said she never lets her son go to the store alone, but she thought he would be safe with Arthur. The woman asked that the Tribune not identify her or her son.
“He can’t come out anymore for a while cause I don’t know what’s going on anymore,” she said. “They shot an innocent little boy.”
Late Wednesday, family members started setting up a memorial near a tree near where the boy was shot, leaving stuffed animals in a bunch. On an inflatable plastic SpongeBob SquarePants, someone wrote “We will miss you.” They left a slip of paper, with signatures of those who would miss Arthur.
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