The fatal shooting of a 17-year-old Johnson College Prep graduate who shined as a basketball player and was two days away from college orientation has family members and educators grieving.
Marcel Pearson was gunned down Tuesday night, just before a scheduled Thursday trip to Western Illinois University, said Jillian Carew, who was Pearson’s high school adviser.
“I just know my heart is heavy,” Carew said after arriving at the scene of the shooting, near the intersection of South Eggleston Avenue and West 93rd Street. She had planned on driving Pearson to Western Illinois.
Police said the shooting happened just after 10 p.m. in the Brainerd neighborhood, when Pearson was leaving a store and walking through a park and a white van approached. An unknown male got out of the van and fired several shots, striking Pearson in the chest and back. He died at the scene, police said.
A second victim, a 15-year-old, was hit in the leg by gunfire and taken to Roseland Community Hospital in good condition, police said.
No one was in custody as of Wednesday night, police said.
Pearson’s mother and grandmother, reached by phone Wednesday, said they were not ready to comment on the teen’s death and that they were grieving.
Pearson was a natural talent in basketball and “his skills shined on the court,” Garland Thomas-McDavid the principal of Johnson College Prep, said in an email Wednesday. “He was a beloved member of the JCP community who had a number of challenges to overcome in his life outside of school.”
He was a member of the school’s founding class of graduates, said Thomas-McDavid.
“It’s a tragedy that he came so close to making it out but will not be able to pursue the bright future he may have had,” she said.
On Tuesday night at the scene of the shooting, family and friends mourned the loss a boy they said looked forward to going away to college.
“He was just a humble person,” said Malik Allen, 17, a close friend of Pearson’s. “He was ready to go off to school.”
Also at the scene, Pearson’s aunt Tamika Anderson said her nephew’s killing left her “at a loss.”
“The same neighborhood that raised him,” she said, “killed him.”
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