By Dawn Rhodes and Rosemary Sobol, Chicago Tribune –
CHICAGO — Police say they have a man in custody and are questioning him in the fatal shooting of Heaven Sutton, a 7-year-old girl who was selling candy with her mother near their West Side home moments before a stray bullet struck her in the back last week.
Though charges had not been filed by Saturday night, police sources said the 26-year-old man taken into custody late Friday night is believed to be the gunman.
He was identified by witnesses of the shooting that sparked outrage from Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other city officials who have been trying to control a recent outbreak of street violence.
“Bringing Heaven’s shooter to justice will not bring her back, but I hope it will provide some level of solace to her family,” Emanuel said in an emailed statement, moments after police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced the arrest during a North Austin community meeting.
Heaven’s mother, Ashake Banks, said Saturday that she was relieved by the news.
“I feel a little better,” Banks said. “Maybe I can get a little rest tonight,” Banks said. “It’s a start.”
Police say tensions between two local gangs have been rising.
A 19-year-old man who was shot in the ankle at the same time Heaven was killed is an alleged member of the Mafia Insane Vice Lords, who have been known to fight with the Four Corner Hustlers, police say.
The 26-year-old man in custody is believed to be a member of one of the two gangs, police sources say. In recent years, he has pleaded guilty to marijuana possession and other minor crimes, records show. His identity is not being released because he has not been charged.
“We know stuff is changing, but it’s getting worse,” said Richard Harrington, Heaven’s uncle. “There are two, three parks near here that don’t have basketball hoops, nothing, so the kids are automatically going to be a target because they have nowhere to go.”
On Saturday, neighbors and family friends still struggled to make sense of how the girl who loved to jump rope, play video games and dress in pretty clothes could be gone.
“She used to make us all laugh,” said her brother Diamante Demetrious, 12.
He had written a message to his sister on a white T-shirt that read: “Love you lil sis. Love, never forgotten.”
On the gate nearby, Heaven’s name was spelled in big, silver balloons, and a tree was decorated with flowers, balloons and stuffed animals.
Harrington said Heaven had gone to the mall with his family the day before she was killed and came back with an assortment of goodies in her favorite color: pink. Sneakers, pink socks and three scoops of pink ice cream.
“She was a real girly girl,” he said with a smile.
