Cornelius German, another teen found dead near President Obama Chicago home
Cornelius German, a 15-year-old boy, was found dead on Monday just four blocks away from President Barack Obama’s home in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood.
German was found lying in the backyard of a friend’s house with a gunshot wound in his back and was pronounced dead at the scene at shortly after his body was discovered, authorities said.
The Obamas’ home, in 5000 block of South Greenwood Avenue, in the Kenwood neighborhood is little under a half-mile from where German’s body was found.
Nicknamed ‘Cornbread’ German told his mother that he was afraid to wait for her at the bus stop because of all the shootings here lately, so he asked her to meet him at a friend’s.
Timika Rutledge said she and the boy’s father pulled up to a home and waited Monday night, even blowing the horn for him to come out. Then they saw police arrive.
“I saw an officer and I stopped him and asked, ‘Officer, what’s going on?’ ”
“A kid got shot in the back,” he told Rutledge.
“I went back there and saw my son’s jacket and his gym shoes. I just bought those shoes. I saw him laying in the grass in the backyard. … I knew it was him in the dark.
“I stayed there until they took him to the morgue,” Rutledge said. “They covered him in a burgundy blanket.”
Relatives told AtlantaBlackStar.com that German was hanging out with friends in the backyard of a home in the 5000 block of South Evans Avenue when a dice game broke up around 9:30 p.m. Gunfire erupted and Cornelius was hit in the back.
German’s death comes about three months after the fatal shooting of another 15-year-old, Hadiya Pendleton, who was gunned down in a park about a mile from the Obama home.
Police spokesman John Mirabelli said the motive in the latest shooting death was not known.
