A 15-year-old who was delivering the Sunday Chicago Tribune to earn money for his sister’s birthday present was fatally shot in a southwest Chicago neighborhood on the morning of Dec. 17.
Jasso delivered the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and New York Times, trying to raise money to buy a birthday present for his younger sister.
At about 6:50 a.m. the pair were driving down West 47th Street in their 2000 Honda CRV when their car was rammed from behind by a white van. Campaneo, at the wheel, tried to accelerate away, but the van pulled up next to the Honda and someone started shooting at their car.
Campeano pulled his stepson’s head down into his lap to get him out of the line of fire.
After the shooting stopped, Jasso looked up—and a last bullet struck his head, killing him.
His stepfather was unhurt.
“They started shooting at us from behind,” said stepfather Erick Campeano told ABC News.
“I feel rage, helplessness,” Campeano said. “Don’t understand. We were on our way to work.”
Police believe the attack might be a case of mistaken identity, a misguided act of revenge for earlier gang activity in the neighborhood, according to Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
“We’re still in the early stages of the investigation,” Guglielmi told WLS News.
A man and a woman were killed and another man wounded in a shooting the night before, a few miles away at the 5900 block of South Richmond.
In that incident, a 25-year-old man, a 20-year-old man, and a 21-year-old woman were shot by a pedestrian while driving in a car. The older man and the woman were killed, the younger man critically wounded, struck by several bullets.
Guglielmi said an ongoing conflict between feuding Hispanic gangs have led to a number of shootings and murders this year in the Chicago Lawn, Deering, and Ogden districts.