Update December 1, 2020: The victim is identified as Ledon Ervin Jr.
A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed inside a Loop parking garage early Monday, police said. The incident may be connected to a party in a nearby hotel, according to a source. Officers found a gun in the deceased teen’s waistband, according to a source.
The boy was the front seat passenger of a brand new BMW on the first floor of a parking garage at 801 South Wabash when two masked men approached around 2:37 a.m., according to preliminary information from CPD and a police report.
The offenders opened fire, shooting the victim twice in his face, police said. An ambulance transported him to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:05 a.m.
According to police, the BMW’s driver and another passenger said the offenders are two Black males who wore ski masks. One of the suspects had dreadlocks. They were last seen heading eastbound on 8th Street in an older black car, police said.
Neither the victim nor the BMW’s driver has had previous contact with Chicago police, the department said.
The boy is the 18th person shot in the Loop this year, compared to just three shooting victims in all of 2019. He’s the neighborhood’s fourth homicide victim of 2020. One of this year’s other murder victims was shot, another was stabbed, and the fourth was pushed into the path of a Red Line train.
A significant amount of this year’s violence has been connected to hotel room parties as properties offer deeply-discounted nightly rates to attract business during the COVID pandemic.
