CHICAGO (CBS) — A 16-year-old boy was arrested Saturday in the shooting that left him dead 7-year-old Jai’mani Amir Rivera on the Near West Side this week.
Raysean Comer is charged as an adult the Tuesday afternoon shooting that left Jai’mani dead at the Oakley Square Apartments complex, in the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard.
In a filing, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rogers said Jai’mani lived in a building at Oakley Square Apartments, and that his mother had called him from work to ask him to take a cooking pot to a neighbor who lived in a building next door. door.
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, Jai’mani was captured on surveillance video walking through the lobby of the building where he lived and out the door with a pot in hand. Video showed him walking back to his building as a bloodstain formed on his white T-shirt, prosecutors said.
A witness in the lobby came to Jai’mani’s aid as he slowly lost consciousness and fell to the ground, prosecutors said.
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The police were called and rushed to the scene. Jai’mani was found unconscious in the lobby of the building where he lived, prosecutors said. Police Supt. Larry Snelling noted at a news conference Tuesday that officers immediately began life-saving techniques and took Jai’mani to Stroger Hospital in Cook County in a police car, but he died at the hospital.
A 911 caller said she was driving her car nearby when she heard two gunshots, prosecutors said. She also saw what she described as a teenage boy with a gun shooting west toward the Oakley Square Apartments.
According to the witness, the shooter ran out of sight toward Van Buren Street after shooting, prosecutors said.
Meanwhile, police received a separate tip that Comer was involved in the shooting — and indicated he was hanging out a few blocks east of Jackson Boulevard, prosecutors said.
At the scene, police found approximately 13 .223-caliber shell casings in the rear parking lot of Crane Medical Prep High School, across Oakley Boulevard from Oakley Square Apartments. The school’s parking lot is about 300 feet away and provides a direct line to where Jai’mani was standing when he was shot, prosecutors said.
Surveillance cameras mounted on homes, buildings and the school captured the shooter — later determined to be Comer — before, during and after the shooting, prosecutors said. A witness said he was wearing a mask over his face during the shooting, but one video showed him leaving a courtyard in the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard with his face bare minutes before the shooting, prosecutors said.
He was then seen returning to the courtyard shortly afterward, prosecutors said.
Police issued a bulletin to officers seeking to identify the teenage shooter. A Chicago police officer who knew Comer saw the footage and identified him — and two other officers also recognized him, prosecutors said.
The second pair of officers had arrested Comer on March 21, 2023, for criminal trespass to a vehicle and had seen him loitering in the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard, prosecutors said.
Two witnesses who knew Comer from visiting the supermarket where they work were also located, prosecutors said. They also identified him, along with another witness who said she was playing cards with Comer and others after the shooting.
“During the card game, someone else told me [Comer] that he will have nightmares about what he has done, referring to killing people,” the listing said. [Comer] said, ‘I didn’t mean to do that.'”
Comer’s home address was found through his juvenile history report. He was arrested at his home on Thursday.
“He had something to live for,” says Jai’mani’s brother
On Friday, Jai’mani’s family and frustrated residents of the Oakley Square Apartments complex marched for peace. Jai’mani’s mother sat there in the car with a photo of her son, but without words.
Jai’mani’s cousin, 10-year-old Joel Rivera, spoke on behalf of the family.
“He had something to live for. He was only seven. He was just studying to sign a football contract,” said Joel, “but he was taken away.”
The shooting that killed Jai’mani also occurred just over a year later Nicole Watson, 44, was killed by a stray bullet through the fence of the same complex. Her then 13-year-old son, Jacob, was seriously injured but survived.
“My heart is broken like their hearts are broken,” said Nicole Watson’s father, Paul Watson. “Neither of us wanted to stand among this crowd.”
Comer is charged as an adult with first-degree murder. He is due back in Violence Court (Br. 66) at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
