Eric Billops was standing at a bus stop Wednesday afternoon as Hyde Park Academy High School was letting out for the day when witnesses told police another person in a school uniform came up to him, took a gun out of a book bag and started to fire.
Billops, 16, was shot several times and was pronounced dead soon afterward, according to a police report obtained by the Tribune. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the calf, per the report.
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On Thursday, about 40 of the boy’s relatives and friends gathered at a balloon release near the scene of the shooting, struggling to make sense of the violent act. Billops’ grandmother, Jerri Billops, sat in a red folding chair with a bouquet of roses, as she watched dozens of balloons etched with words like “King forever” fly high above the South Side YMCA on 63rd Street.
Billops, a sophomore at Hyde Park Academy, was known for his love of basketball and football.
“I thought I was gonna get to go to a graduation,” said Jerri Billops, 63. “I don’t understand.”
Grand Crossing (3rd) District police and Wentworth Area detectives later learned that Billops and the possible suspect, another Hyde Park Academy student, had been planning to fight after school, the report stated. That student had been let out of school early and returned to the area around dismissal time, according to the report.
The shooter walked up to Billops at the bus stop, took a gun out of his backpack and began firing before he fled south, witnesses said.
According to the police report, the school’s dean said several other students told him the identity of the shooter, whom witnesses saw running southbound away from the scene.
Jerri Billops said she used to take her grandson, nicknamed King and “EK,” to school, “because I was scared what happened to him was gonna happen to him back then.”
As he grew older, he told her, “No, Grandma, I’m OK,” she recalled. And he began taking the bus by himself. But on Wednesday, when she and Billops’ father received a call that the teen had been shot and wasn’t breathing, they rushed to the bus stop.
The shooting sent Hyde Park Academy, located two blocks south of the Obama Presidential Center site, into a soft lockdown. In a letter to families, Principal Rosette Edinburg wrote that crisis and care teams would be available to help support students and staff in the wake of the shooting.
“We are extremely saddened by this incident,” Edinburg continued in her letter, “and will do everything we can to help our school community heal.”
Ald. Desmon Yancy, 5th, said he was “devastated” about Wednesday’s shooting.
Gun violence is an issue, according to Yancy, who believes easy access to guns among young adults can lead to violence.
“Young people are going through a lot these days, and then too there’s a proliferation of guns in our community,” he said. “When you add a lack of trauma support for young people, we can only anticipate these kinds of things happening.”
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Two other Hyde Park Academy students were also killed in recent months, said Yancy, who is working with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and community organizations to “find a way to make sure these sorts of tragedies don’t happen anymore.”
Police recovered about a dozen handgun shell casings at the scene of the Wednesday shooting, as well as two book bags. No one was in custody as of Thursday afternoon.
The death was a bitter pill for Jaz Deaise, whose son was a close friend of Billops’ and who played football with him. Deaise, 34, who attended the balloon release, said the shooting occurred in front of her son, something she called “traumatizing.”
“It kind of hit home. Me being a mother, you know, I could be in her position right now.”” Deaise said, referring to Billops’ mother.
At the afternoon vigil, electric candles were positioned to spell out “EK.” Posters with photos of Billops hung from the YMCA gates, where dozens of blue, silver and black star-shaped balloons were released after a prayer.
“Long live King!” People yelled between tears and puffy eyes. A tequila bottle was passed around amid sobs.
“I’m gonna miss him,” said Jerri Billops, who has three other living grandchildren. Billops is survived by a brother.