COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, Ill. (CBS) – Students at Country Club Hills in the south suburbs returned to class Monday after the shooting that left freshman Marshawn Mitchell dead.
Someone shot the 14-year-old after the Hillcrest High School football game on Friday evening. As police searched for the shooter, one parent took huge action.
As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported, the father of a student at the school is offering a $4,000 reward to find whoever traumatized the Hillcrest campus, leaving many in mourning. The reward is solving the murder of a young man he has even met.
On Monday evening, the monument outside Hillcrest High continued to grow. Friends of Marshawn’s gathered at the scene where someone opened fire.
CBS
“The family of Hillcrest, we are all saddened by this,” Stringer Harris said.
Marshawn was shot four times in front of his classmates during his high school’s homecoming game.
Harris doesn’t know the 14-year-old, but his daughter is also a freshman at school. CBS 2’s Terry asked Harris’ daughter, Kayla Watkins, about the school vote on Monday.
“It was very sad,” she said. “You could feel people’s energy. They felt hurt.”
Kayla is thankful she didn’t attend the homecoming game. But even though they weren’t there, the pain still resonates as students walk past the monument.
“It hurts to know that I go to school in a place where something like this happened, and that I have to walk where that happened,” she said.
Kayla’s father is also a Hillcrest alum. He wants to ensure that the pain and fear that his daughter and so many others have suffered are eased. Harris, along with the Hillcrest Alumni Association, are offering a $4,000 reward to find Marshawn’s killer.
“Some people might look at $4,000 and say, ‘Hey, I’m not giving up my son or daughter or whoever was involved in this for just $4,000,’” Stringer said. “But I always insist, and I tell people, to put yourself in those people’s shoes.”
Last weekend, the teen’s family made an emotional plea.
“And whichever parent of the child who killed him, she knows her child did it,” said La Africa Lenoir, the victim’s cousin. ‘We have to take a stand. We have to do something different. These are babies killing babies.”
Harris hopes the reward will bring some closure.
“We want justice for him,” he said. “You know, this shouldn’t happen to anyone.”
Country Club Hills police have not arrested anyone in this case. In addition to the $4,000 reward Harris offered, there was also a separate $1,000 reward, bringing the total to $5,000.
Tips can go directly to the police.
Jermont Terry
