Chi Town Daily News
By Julie Segraves
A 17-year-old Chicago boy has been indicted in a Rogers Park killing that sparked an outcry among neighbors and made some wary of teens who attend community events at a nearby community center.
A Cook County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Leroy Prothro on involuntary manslaughter charges in the Feb. 10 beating death of Wayne Jones.
Authorities said the incident unfolded about 10:50 p.m. as Jones and another man began arguing on the street.
Prothro, who was friends with the second man, crossed the street, approached Jones from behind and hit him. Jones, 50, fell, hit his head on the sidewalk and died the following day.
The crime caused a controversy in the neighborhood because it occurred less than thirty minutes after a party down the block at the Howard Area Community Center (HACC) wrapped up.
The party was supervised by police and chaperones, and by 10:35 p.m., only a few teens and staff were left at the HACC facility and on the block.
But some in the community believed the teens attending the party had been involved in Jones’ death.
John Fitzgerald, Howard Area Community Center’s executive director, said the suspicion is related to the neighborhood’s changing demographics. “Historically teenagers are not the most favorite members of the community, then our kids are minorities who are less desirable to those who want to gentrify,” he said.
“There are those who would like to see us out.” Age and race, he noted, “can create real problems.”
Detectives questioned those who attended the party, as well as HACC staff, in hopes they would identify someone who had witnessed the event.
A week after Jones’ death, some of the HACC participants attended a prayer circle. They were greeted with suspicion by community members.
“We are looking further into the situation and are trying to see how we can better present our programs to the community,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald confirmed that Prothro, of the 7500 block of North Sheridan Road, was not involved in any HACC programs.
Prothro appears again in court on April 27 and is currently being held in Cook County jail in lieu of $125,000 bond.
6 comments:
killcatt asked, "Do you just slander and create sensational stories[?]"
Hadn't you noticed that Craig "reports" whatever is most convenient for him to report?
Remember when Craig was all over the HACC kids for apologizing to Wayne Jones's widow? Thank goodness Craig provided the link to that post in this one.
"And the most burning question of all. Why come out and publicly apologize to the victims family if you did nothing wrong and she wasn't even in attendance?"
Who will Craig use next?
"Maybe it was a HACC member?"
What leads you to believe that? The part in the article that says, "Jones and another man began arguing on the street?"
The point is that Craig wanted to blame HACC and he wanted to blame CeaseFire and he wanted to point fingers and blame everybody without any evidence. He wanted to ask about Joe Moore's whereabouts as he does with everything else. People like you want to blindly follow Craig and defend him until the end and you'll never realize that he has nobody's best interests at heart except his own.
Nobody's blaming Craig for the murder. That's totally unfounded and ridiculous -- something only Craig would do.
After a careful read of the article, I still have some questions. Is asking questions slanderous?
No mention of CeaseFire's involvement although the article had ample opportunity. The way the article reads, CeaseFire wasn't there!
> The party was supervised by police and chaperones, and by 10:35 p.m., only a few teens and staff were left at the HACC facility and on the block.
No mention that the chaperones included paid and salaried CeaseFire staff.
Was CeaseFire hired by HACC to chaperone?
My understanding is the HACC event was scheduled for 8 to 11. Why did the chaperones from CeaseFire leave early?
> Detectives questioned those who attended the party, as well as HACC staff, in hopes they would identify someone who had witnessed the event.
Detectives also questioned the CeaseFire chaperones, but that was not mentioned in the article.
> But some in the community believed the teens attending the party had been involved in Jones’ death.
"BUT" as if we now know there was no connection between Jones' death and the HACC event. Shouldn't this read more accurately ...
"Some in the community believed the teens attending the party had been involved in Jones’ death."
Does what we know about this exonerate any connection to the HACC event?
Were persons who were refused admission to the HACC event involved in Jones' murder?
> To insure adequate supervision, the staff of the Rogers Park Ceasefire office, which is across the street, were asked to chaperone the party to augment the five or six Howard Area Community staff members present.
> For added security the 24th District provided a beat car, which was parked outside ...
> Vernandez Jones, of Ceasefire Chicago told me that he was working the door with Carolyn Read. As this was a closed party, open only to HACC program participants, Carolyn was at the door with him to identify their kids. Non program participants were turned away when they attempted to gain entry.
The Chicago Police, The Howard Area Community Center (HACC) and the Organization of the Northeast (ONE) had paid staff members present at this event. They are responsible for before, during, and after. They are responsible for the OUTSIDE of the event just as much as the inside. Even moreso when they start turnng certain people away, it is reasonable for one to expect that the street may become an issue.
One of our neighbors died. I'd like to better understand what we learned from this and what we are going to do differently in the future.
Of course our young people need things to do, but we also need to take providing for these events more competently. We have to take the environment of Morse Ave and east Rogers Park more seriously, with a thorough understanding of the very real risks.
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