Suspect in fatal shooting of Tilden honor student released without charges

A person taken into custody after Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a high school junior who was walking to school in Back of the Yards has been released without charges, police said Thursday.

Pedro Ramirez, 17, was struck by stray gunfire about 7:40 a.m. while walking from his home to Tilden High School. Four masked assailants jumped out of a Jeep in the 5000 block of South Throop Street and fired toward a red minivan, according to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Pedro, who was on the school’s soccer and volleyball team, was walking west on the south side of 51st Street at the time of the shooting, according to a police report. He died at Comer Children’s Hospital less than an hour later.

Two men, ages 55 and 61, were inside the minivan. They were both hit, and drove the van from the scene and called 911, the report said. Both were taken to Stroger Hospital and were expected to survive their injuries.

A 911 caller who witnessed the attack gave police a description of the Jeep. Officers then chased it and took one of the four occupants into custody near 44th Street and Wolcott Avenue, but that person was released from custody Thursday. The other three assailants fled on foot, according to the report. One pistol and one rifle were found in the Jeep.

Pedro, an honor roll student at Tilden, has been remembered by family and friends as a “peaceful kid” whose “smile was contagious.”

“His friends are destroyed,” said Pedro’s mother, Asucena Velazquez. “I always knew he had a lot of friends, but I didn’t realize how much they loved him. But they’ve shown me that my son was an excellent friend and classmate. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Chicago police are continuing to investigate the shooting.