Son of Chicago police officer shot dead in weekend tirade that killed eight
Son of Chicago police officer shot dead in weekend tirade that killed eight
The son of a Chicago police officer is the latest victim of the city’s gun violence.
Police say 19-year-old Arshell ‘Trey’ Dennis III was shot in the chest as he sat with a friend on a porch outside of his family home around midnight in the Wrightwood neighborhood early Sunday and pronounced dead at the hospital, reports The Sun Times.
The 20-year-old man with him was also was shot and hospitalized in serious condition.
The two were at Dennis’s family home in the 2900 block of West 82nd Street.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says the deceased’s father, Police Officer Arshell ‘Chico’ Dennis, worked patrol with Superintendent Eddie Johnson.
The victim was one of nine victims killed across the city this so far this weekend, along with 30 wounded, according to CBS Chicago.
The younger Arshell was set to begin his junior year as a journalism major at New York’s St. John’s University and to return to school Sunday. Johnson says he was a ‘good kid’ with ‘a promising future as a journalist.’
The family said they were planning to bring Trey to the airport so he could go back to college on the day he was killed.
Guglielmi says police haven’t ruled out anything, but a leading theory is the shooting is a mistaken identity case. Neither victim had criminal records or gang affiliations.
‘Our family is deeply saddened this by tragic and senseless shooting,” a statement from the Dennis family said, according to The Sun Times.
‘The loss of our son is stunning and painful. Trey was smart, funny, and the light of our lives.’
The city was shocked last month when six-year-old Taccara Morris was hit by a stray bullet in her stomach while she was standing on her front porch.
