Saturday, October 2, 2010

2nd brother shot dead this month within blocks of home

Street violence struck a Chatham family for a second time this month when an 18-year-old man was fatally shot, just weeks after his younger brother was gunned down in the same area, police said.

Jajuan Brooks had gone out for pizza when he was shot in the chest and leg around 6:35 p.m. at East 79th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, police and family said. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died.

Brooks was shot not far from where his brother was gunned down earlier this month, said Gresham District Capt. Ruth Wedster.

Jeremy Brooks, 17, was shot several times by one of two people who confronted him about 2:15 p.m. on Sept. 2, police said. He stumbled behind a church near 78th and Cottage Grove and collapsed.

"They're not the kids who hung out on the street," their uncle, Michael Tribett, said in a telephone interview Thursday night. "They spent all their time together. They waited on their mother because she's a senior citizen."

The brothers' mother, Sheree Tribett, could be heard crying, grieving over the family's latest tragedy. Michael Tribett said another of her son's had just arrived home from work and was being told of the slaying.

Tribett said a turf war has taken hold of the neighborhood, but his nephew stayed in the house all the time unless he was running errands for his mother. The brothers were the third and fourth of eight siblings.

When the 17-year-old was killed, police said the shooting may have been gang-related and that he might have been the younger relative of a top gang member. Police said then they feared a retaliation shooting could take place.

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