A 9-year-old boy shot to death in front of the television at his grandmother’s Skokie home two weeks ago was targeted in what the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office described as a “retaliation shooting” against the boy’s family, prosecutors said in a statement.
Skokie police at a press conference on Friday said that Tamesha Clark, 32, of the 2000 block of West Arthur Avenue in Chicago, Richard Banks, 22, of the 1500 block of Jonquil Terrace in Chicago and Christian Anderson, 16, of the 7300 block of North Damen Avenue in Chicago, have all been charged with first degree murder, attempted first degree murder and aggravated battery in the crime.
They were all being held without bond on Friday.
Jeremiah Ellis, 9 and his brother, 6, were staying overnight at their grandparents’ home in the 4700 block of Main Street in Skokie on May 13 celebrating Jeremiah’s 9th birthday when they were struck down in “a hailstorm of bullets” shot through a ground floor window shortly after midnight, prosecutors said in a statement.
Jeremiah was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later and his brother was treated for a gunshot wound to his foot.
Investigators interviewed family members of the victims and learned, according to the prosecutors’ statement, “that it was suspected that this shooting was a ‘retaliation shooting’ stemming from an expressway shooting death that occurred in August of 2021.”
The man killed in that shooting was in a dating relationship with a woman whom prosecutors identified as Co-Offender 1, according to the State’s Attorney’s Office statement, and at the press conference, Skokie police confirmed this woman’s identity as that of Clark. “It was suspected that this individual harbored anger against the victim’s grandparents and wanted to seek revenge for her boyfriend’s death,” the statement said. According to prosecutors, police were shown a Snapchat story allegedly posted by Clark, with the text, “I’ll smoke u and yo kids…. yeah b– I said yo kids.”
Police on Friday described a brutal crime in which the two boys were shot through a ground floor window as they were lying on the floor in front of the television.
During Friday’s press conference, Jeremiah’s grandmother Sentoria Williams Adams said she was sleeping on a nearby sofa when the shooting started. She said she immediately got on the floor and checked on her grandchildren.
“I grabbed Jeremiah in my arms,” she said. “I felt blood going through my fingers. I started yelling ‘call the police.’ I had pumped him some in the chest. I relive it every day since then.”
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She described her grandson as someone who enjoyed being with his family, and loved dancing, basketball, and eating seafood and cabbage and also said he was a third grade student at Herzl Elementary School on the West Side of Chicago.
Jeremiah’s father, Cecil Tousant, on Friday said his son had a smile that brightened up the city. “He just wanted to be a kid,” he said. “He loved his nanny.”
Police on Friday said 35 shots were fired into the apartment and that cell phone records, security video and witness statements helped them bring charges in the case.
Prosecutors on Thursday said Anderson sent a text message to his aunt on May 17 asking if she would look at him differently if she knew that he “had killed someone” and also texted an acquaintance on May 17 stating that he could “not stop seeing their faces, every time he closes his eyes.”