A high school sophomore gunned down outside a church was among more than two dozen people hurt in weekend gun violence in Chicago.
Michael Flournoy, 16, was fatally shot in the head just before 8 p.m. Saturday in the 1000 block of East 93rd Street in the city's Burnside neighborhood, according to the Chicago Tribune. The shooting took place outside St. Anthony's Church. The teen had reportedly left a relative's home to buy a bag of chips and got into an argument with someone inside a car he encountered along the way.
Flournoy was a popular student at Simeon Career Academy, where he was a member of both the football and wrestling teams. He had planned to go to college, dreamed of becoming an architect and was looking forward to a possible summer job at Navy Pier, his grandfather told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Flournoy's wrestling coach, Carnell Jones, told ABC Chicago the teen "was just a conscientious kid, had a good spirit, and at the same time was really focused on his grades and just wanted to do what he could, whether it was in a classroom or on the wrestling mat, to pick up extra work to improve and get better."
The boy's mother, Tymeka Woods, told CBS Chicago she was so protective of her son that she rarely let him attend parties. "I just feel like this time, I dropped the ball," she added.
A vigil was held Sunday evening for Flournoy. A $1,000 reward is being offered by community activist Andrew Holmes to anyone who has information leading to an arrest in the shooting.
Another person was killed and 25 others were injured in shootings over the weekend in Chicago, according to the Sun-Times. 24-year-old Jordan Harris was fatally shot at a house party in the city's West Garfield Park neighborhood early Saturday morning. Five other people were wounded in the shooting after someone opened fire on a group gathered on the back porch of the two-flat building.
The weekend violence comes just after the Chicago Police Department reported last week that the city's homicide total for the first quarter of 2014 was at its lowest level since 1958, despite the March homicide total surpassing its total from the same month last year.
No arrests have been made in any of the weekend shootings as of Monday morning while police investigations continue.