Teen taken into custody following shooting that killed 7-year-old boy on Chicago's Near West Side

CHICAGO (CBS) — A 16-year-old boy was arrested Saturday in the shooting that killed Jai'mani Amir Rivera, 7 years old on the Near West Side this week.

Raysean Comer is charged as an adult in the Tuesday afternoon shooting that killed Jai'mani at the Oakley Square Apartments complex in the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard.

In a bid, Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Anne McCord Rogers said Jai'mani lived in an apartment building at Oakley Square Apartments and his mother called him from work to ask him to bring a pot to a neighbor who lived in a neighboring building. door.

On Tuesday at 3 p.m., Jai'mani was caught on surveillance video walking through the lobby of the apartment building where he lived and exiting with a pot in his hand. The video then captured him returning to his apartment building with a blood stain forming 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.

Police were called and rushed to the scene, finding Jai'mani unconscious in the lobby of the apartment building where he lived, prosecutors said. Police superintendent. Larry Snelling noted during a news conference Tuesday that officers immediately began using life-saving techniques and transported Jai'mani to Cook County Stroger Hospital in a patrol car, but he died at the hospital.

A person who called 911 said she was driving her car nearby when she heard two gunshots, prosecutors said. She also saw what she described as a teenager with a rifle, shooting west toward the Oakley Square Apartments.

“The defendant can be seen taking a gun away from his parents and shooting it multiple times,” McCord Rogers said.

The witness said that after he finished shooting, the shooter ran out of sight toward Van Buren Street, 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 on Jackson Boulevard, prosecutors said.

At the scene, police recovered approximately 13 .223 caliber shell casings in the rear parking lot of Crane Medical Prep High School, just across Oakley Boulevard from the Oakley Square Apartments. The school parking lot is about 300 feet and in a straight line of sight from where Jai'mani was standing when he was shot, prosecutors said.

Surveillance cameras installed on homes, buildings and the school showed the shooter, later determined to be Comer, before, during and after the shooting, prosecutors said. A witness said he wore a mask over his face during the shooting, but video showed him with his face exposed leaving a yard in the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard minutes before the shooting, prosecutors said.

He was then seen returning to the yard immediately afterward, prosecutors said.

Police sent 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 trespassing of a vehicle and saw him loitering in the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard, prosecutors said.

Lawyers said Comer was already wanted by police, after missing a court date for two previous arrests – one for possession of a stolen car and the other for aggravated battery.

Prosecutors said he even cut off his ankle monitor less than two weeks before firing the shots that killed Jai'mani.

Two witnesses were also located who knew Comer from when he visited the grocery store where they worked, prosecutors said. They also identified her and another witness who said she was playing cards with Comer and others after the shooting.

“During the card game, another person said [Comer] that he will have nightmares about what he did, referring to killing people,” the proposal said. “In response, [Comer] said, 'I didn't want to do that.'”

Comer's home address was found through his youth history report. He was arrested at his home on Thursday.

'Our family is numb,' says Jai'mani's aunt

The Rivera family clings to the memory of their little boy.

“Right now, our family is numb. We lost, you know, our heart, our soul,” Jai'mani's aunt, Vanessa Rivera, said Saturday outside the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse. “I treated him like one of my own. He was a very outgoing kid.”

The family expressed no sympathy for Comer.

“I understand he’s a minor, but that doesn’t matter,” Vanessa Rivera said. “You took all of my baby's life away. My baby didn't get to live his life.”

On Friday, just before charges in the case were announced, Jai'mani's family and frustrated residents of the Oakley Square Apartments complex marched for peace. Jai'mani's mother was there in the car with a photo of her young son, but no words.

On Friday, Jai'mani's cousin, Joel Rivera, 10, spoke on behalf of the family.

“He had a reason to live. He was only 7 years old. He was just studying to sign a football contract,” Joel said, “but he was taken away.”

The shooting that killed Jai'mani also took place just over a year later Nicole Watson, 44 years old, was killed by a stray bullet passing through the fence of the same complex. His son Jacob, then aged 13, was seriously injured, but survived.

“My heart is broken like their hearts are broken,” said Paul Watson, Nicole Watson's father. “None of us wanted to be part of that crowd.”

Comer is charged with first-degree murder as an adult. He is scheduled to return to Violence Court (Br. 66) at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse for a preliminary hearing Tuesday.