A 16-year-old Aurora boy faces a first-degree murder charge after police connected him to a fatal shooting Friday afternoon on the city’s near-south side that authorities say was gang-related.
The incident occurred about 1 p.m., when Gianni Aguirre, 17, was approached outside his home in the 100 block of Bluff Street by the suspect and a 17-year-old companion, police said.
“Aguirre and the 16-year-old apparently exchanged words, which led to the 16-year-old allegedly producing a handgun and firing multiple shots at Aguirre and hitting him a single time in the chest,” the Aurora Police Department said in a news release Saturday.
The victim was pronounced dead at an Aurora hospital shortly after arrival, police said. An autopsy is pending at the Kane County coroner’s office.
The Kane County state’s attorney approved a first-degree murder charge Saturday against the boy, who is in custody at the Kane County Youth Home. The 16-year-old is charged as an adult, but police are not naming him until he is publicly identified in a court hearing.
The suspect is one of two teens arrested near Lincoln Avenue and Seminary Street within minutes of the shooting. According to police, a gun also was recovered from the location where the two were found.
Authorities credited numerous witnesses who came forward with information that led them quickly to the pair after they fled from the shooting site on foot.
The older of the two was released without being charged “after detectives learned he apparently had no knowledge of the impending incident and that he ran out of fear,” according to the statement.
Although a definite motive has not been established, the shooting does not appear to be random, police said.
Aguirre’s shooting was the first homicide this year in Aurora, where there were eight slayings in 2014.
A makeshift memorial on the front porch of a house across from the Bluff Street Park playground was a reminder of Friday’s killing. A poster board with the handwritten words “Rest in peace Gianni” and “Gone but never forgotten” was displayed behind a candle.
A 72-year-old neighbor spoke about having a homicide occur a few houses from where he has lived for 40 years.
“The neighborhood has been quiet until about the last six months. I know there are gangs and drug problems, but it is that way in cities everywhere,” he said.
“There are beautiful homes here, and most people try to keep them up,” the resident said.
The man said he returned home from shopping Friday afternoon and found police had blocked Bluff Street between South LaSalle Street and South Broadway Avenue.
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“There were more cops there than you could shake a stick at,” he said of the investigation that lasted for several hours.
The resident said he received an email from 4th Ward Ald. Bill Donnell that police were investigating a homicide on his block.
“The older you get the more you learn to live with things that happen close to home. Sure you would like for everything to stay the same, but life changes,” he said.