A 16-year-old boy had a hearing before a judge on a weapons charge on the same day he later carjacked a Lyft and gunned down another teen in Bronzeville — all while on electronic monitoring, Cook County prosecutors said Thursday.
The brutal Tuesday afternoon killing was captured on surveillance video and showed 16-year-old Anthony Brown get out of a stolen car, walk up to 15-year-old Michael Brown and shoot the younger teen once in the head, Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.
Anthony Brown then stood over the younger boy and fired an additional nine rounds into the body, Murphy said.
Neither Chicago police nor prosecutors have offered a motive.
“Obviously, it was targeted,” Supt. David Brown said a day earlier when announcing charges in the case, but provided no additional details.
The two teens are not related, and no connections between them beyond the killing are currently known, a source with knowledge of the case told the Sun-Times.
Anthony Brown was wearing a GPS monitoring bracelet as part of his release on a pending juvenile charge that continuously tracked his movements on the day of the killing, Murphy said.
He was picked up about 2:15 p.m. by a Lyft driver in a black Infiniti SUV, who drove the teen to the 200 block of South Kildare Avenue, where the teen pulled out a handgun and held it to the driver’s head, Murphy said.
After stealing the car, Anthony Brown’s GPS bracelet tracked him to a block near the former Ida B. Wells public housing community where a 15-year-old boy who was later found driving the SUV at the time it was stopped by police lived, Murphy said.
About 45 minutes later, the SUV was driving north in the 3300 block of South Prairie Avenue when it passed Michael Brown as he walked home from school, Murphy said. The SUV then allegedly turned around and headed back south.
The car stopped next to where Michael Brown was walking on the sidewalk as video recorded Anthony Brown get out of the front passenger seat and commit the shooting before getting back in and driving away, Murphy said.
On the video of the murder, the shooter can be seen wearing a black sweatshirt with three rows of letters printed on it, Murphy said, which matched clothing that Anthony Brown was wearing when police officers conducted a traffic stop on the SUV a half hour later.
The words on the shirt read “Reach for the Stars,” Murphy said.
Anthony Brown was previously arrested June 10 and charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon when he was found carrying a .22-caliber Glock handgun after a foot chase, Murphy said.
The teen was released on electronic monitoring five days later, but the electronic monitoring order was dropped on June 30 and replaced with a curfew order, Murphy said.
In December, officers arrested him after he ran from a car that had been reported stolen and found him in possession of a 9-mm handgun, leading the teen to pick up a second unlawful use of a weapon charge, according to Murphy.
He was then placed back on electronic monitoring last month and most recently appeared in a juvenile court hearing on the same day as the murder later took place, Murphy said.
The teen wasn’t wearing a shirt during that live-streamed hearing and was told by the judge to come back the following day “dressed appropriately for court,” Murphy said.
A private defense attorney for Anthony Brown said the boy was living with his grandmother.
Anthony Brown, who has been charged as an adult, faces counts of first-degree murder and vehicular hijacking.
The 15-year-old who was driving the SUV at the time of the murder was charged with possession of a stolen vehicle as a juvenile, police said.
Judge Charles Beach ordered Brown held without bail during his bond hearing Thursday, noting the boy was facing “adult consequences” for his alleged actions and could be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted.
Anthony Brown was an aspiring rapper who went by the name 757 Baby Glock, according to videos uploaded to YouTube.
In an interview published on the streaming site in October by “MikeMakeMovies,” Brown said he was unsure what could change in Chicago in regards to the violence.
“S---, I don’ really know because me, myself, I don’t think the violence will stop,” he said.
“M---------- die e’ry day. M---------- could be dyin’ right now, anything. Everything that goin’ on daily, that s—- happening right now.”
Asked what his message would be to other kids out there who think this lifestyle is cool, he said: “It ain’t at all. Because once you in this s---, ain’t no getting out. And so if you got that chance to go on with your hoop dreams, whatever … if you thinking like that, take that.”
Contributing: Tom Schuba
