A teenager has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of a 7-year-old boy on Chicago’s Near West Side.

CHICAGO (CBS) – A 16-year-old boy was ordered arrested on Saturday in connection with the shooting that resulted in his death 7-year-old Jai’mani Amir Rivera this week on the Near West Side.

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

In her testimony, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rogers said Jai’mani lived in a building at the Oakley Square Apartments and his mother called him from work and asked him to take the pot to a neighbor who lived in the building next door. door.

On Tuesday at 3 p.m., surveillance footage captured Jai’mani walking through the hall of the building where he lived and leaving with a pot in his hand. Video then captured him returning to the building with a blood stain on his white T-shirt, prosecutors said.

A witness in the lobby came to the aid of Jai’mani, who slowly lost consciousness and fell to the floor, prosecutors say.

Police were called and arrived at the scene and found Jai’mani unconscious in the lobby of the building where he lived, prosecutors said. Police Chief Larry Snelling noted at a news conference Tuesday that officers immediately began life-saving measures and transported Jai’mani in a police car to Stroger Hospital in Cook County, but he died at the hospital.

The person calling 911 said he was driving nearby when he heard two shots, prosecutors said. She also saw a person she described as a teenager with a rifle shooting west toward the Oakley Square Apartments.

“We saw the defendant take a rifle from his parents and shoot it multiple times,” McCord Rogers said.

The witness said that after the shooting ended, 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 of Jackson Boulevard, prosecutors said.

At the scene, police recovered approximately 13 .223-caliber shell casings in the parking lot behind Crane Medical Prep High School, across Oakley Boulevard from Oakley Square Apartments. Prosecutors say the school parking lot is about 300 feet from where Jai’mani was standing when he was shot.

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. The witness said he was wearing a mask during the shooting, but one video shows him with his face uncovered leaving a courtyard in the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard minutes before the shooting, prosecutors said.

According to the prosecutor, he was seen returning to the courtyard immediately afterwards.

The police sent a notification to officers who want to establish the teenager’s identity. A Chicago police officer who knew Comer saw the photos and identified him. Two other officers also recognized him, prosecutors say.

Prosecutors said a second pair of officers arrested Comer on March 21, 2023, on a trespassing charge and saw him hanging out at the 2100 block of West Jackson Boulevard.

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

Prosecutors said that less than two weeks before he fired the shots that killed Jai’mani, he cut off the monitor on his ankle.

Two witnesses who knew Comer from going to the grocery store where they work were also found, the prosecutor said. They also identified him and another witness who said she played cards with Comer and others after the shooting.

“While playing cards, another person told (Comer) that she would have nightmares about what she had done, referring to killing people,” the promoter said. “In response, (Comer) said, ‘I didn’t mean to do it.'”

Comer’s home address was found on his juvenile history report. On Thursday, he was arrested at his home.

“Our family is numb,” says Aunt Jai’mani

The Rivera family cherishes the memory of their little boy.

“Right now our family is numb. We lost, you know, our heart and our soul,” Jai’mani’s aunt, Vanessa Rivera, said Saturday outside the John Paul II Criminal Courthouse. George N. Leighton. “I treated him like my own. He was a very sociable child.”

The family expressed no sympathy for Comer.

“I understand he’s a minor, but it doesn’t matter,” Vanessa Rivera said. “You took away my child’s entire life. “My child didn’t get to live his life.”

On Friday, just before charges were announced in the case, Jai’mani’s family and frustrated residents of the Oakley Square Apartments complex marched for peace. Jai’mani’s mother was in the car with a photo of her son, but she didn’t say anything.

Jai’mani’s cousin, 10-year-old Joel Rivera, spoke on behalf of the family on Friday.

“He had something to live for. He was only 7 years old. He was just studying to sign a football contract,” Joel said, “but they took him away.”

A little over a year later, there was a shooting that killed Jai’mani Nicole Watson, 44 years old, was killed by a stray bullet into the fence of the same complex. Her 13-year-old son Jacob was seriously injured, but survived.

“My heart is broken, just like theirs is broken,” said Nicole Watson’s father, Paul Watson. “Neither of us wanted to be in that crowd.”

Comer is charged with first-degree murder as an adult. He will appear again in Violence Court (Br. 66) at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse on Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.