9-Year-Old Boy Lured Into Alley and Executed Due to Dad's Alleged Gang Ties

I've grown used to seeing disturbing news in my Facebook feed. It's the nature of the beast, I suppose. But I full-on stopped in my tracks when I read about Tyshawn Lee, the 9-year-old boy in Chicago who police are now saying was executed due to his father's gang ties. Let me repeat that — a 9-year-old boy, who was simply walking to his grandmother's house with his trusty basketball in his hand, was lured from a park into an alley and shot in the head and back on Monday afternoon. It's disgusting.

And I'm not the only one disgusted — Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy called it probably the "most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime that I've witnessed in 35 years of policing. Everybody is sick; everybody is disgusted."

According to police, two of Chicago's oldest gangs — the Gangster Disciples and the Black P. Stones — have been fighting for several months, and they believe the murder was an act of retaliation for recent shootings. But Tyshawn's father disagrees. Pierre Stokes said, "I never did nothing to — for nobody to hurt my son." Police say that they don't believe Stokes is a witness, but he is not cooperating with authorities and providing the names they seek.

"I don't think he's a witness to it, so I'm not sure how he could help us, but I could tell you this, I'm a father, many of us here are fathers," McCarthy said. "My reaction would be a little bit different."

Well, I'm a mother — of a 9-year-old son — and I just can't comprehend this. While the gang life is foreign to me, I do know what goes on inside a 9-year-old's mind. It's basketball and football scores. It's who picked whom first at recess. It's wondering if the teacher is going to call on you the next day. It's thinking that your parents are both the greatest and stupidest people on earth. It's not thinking that you're a pawn in your father's daily dealings. It's not thinking that someone is out to physically harm you. It's innocence. The 9-year-old mind is innocent and inquisitive. Tyshawn Lee did nothing wrong — except be born into a world he couldn't control.

Rest in peace, innocent boy. You deserved better.