Shooting that killed 9-year-old boy, wounded 6-year-old brother in Skokie was act of “revenge” against grandparents, prosecutors say

CHICAGO (CBS) — A 3rd suspect has been charged in a shooting that remaining a 9-year-previous boy dead and his very little brother wounded in Skokie, in an assault prosecutors say was an act of “revenge” versus the victims’ grandparents around a lethal expressway capturing previous summertime.

Tamesha Clark, 32, has been billed with initial-degree murder, tried to start with-diploma murder, and aggravated battery in the Could 14 shooting that killed 9-12 months-aged Jeremiah Ellis and wounded his 6-calendar year-previous brother. She was requested held with out bond on Friday.

Jeremiah was a university student at Herzl Elementary Faculty on the West Side of Chicago, according to his grandmother, Sentoria Williams Adams. 

Jeremiah’s father, Cecil Tousant, reported he cherished shelling out time with his grandmother, who he named “nanny.”

“He desired to be with his nanny so much,” he reported. “It is really his smile that vivid up the town. He loved TikTok. He just needed to be a child.”

Two other suspects – 22-yr-aged Richard Banking institutions and 16-year-aged Christian Anderson – had been introduced up on the exact fees Thursday. Irrespective of his age, Anderson is charged as an adult. Both are staying held without bail.

Tousant explained the family members is happy to get justice now that a few people have been charged in the circumstance.

According to Cook dinner County prosecutors, Clark, Banks, and Anderson specific the boys because Clark was offended at the boys’ grandparents soon after her boyfriend was killed in an expressway capturing in August 2021, and “wanted to request revenge for her boyfriend’s death.”

Police have been tipped off about a Snapchat tale Clark experienced posted, stating “hoe, Unwell smoke u and yo little ones….yeah bitch I mentioned yo little ones,” according to a courtroom submitting by Cook dinner County prosecutors.

Jeremiah’s uncle, Stanley Jones, claimed his cousin, 25-year-old Ralph Banking companies, was killed in a capturing on the Eisenhower Expressway past August.

Jones mentioned the capturing that killed his nephew “”hit our family authentic hard, and strike us close to household.”

“It can be a tragedy that the girlfriend of my beloved very little cousin, Ralph Financial institutions, would orchestrate an act of violence towards his relatives, a little something we as a spouse and children know he wouldn’t have authorized of,” he claimed.

Jones and Adams reported Clark had been threatening the spouse and children given that Ralph Banks’ death, but did not report them to law enforcement.

“Getting so close to house, you do not just take it as even though it would genuinely be played out, so we trustworthy God for every thing else,” Jones explained.

Adams explained Ralph Banking institutions and his mother and brother earlier lived with her for 10 decades, and said it didn’t make any perception for his girlfriend to blame their loved ones for the shooting.

“It’s no way in hell I would let an individual to explain to me that they did some thing to him, and not say nearly anything to any one, or let anybody know that someone’s seeking to damage him,” she mentioned. “They’ve been placing threats on our lifetime for an incident that did not entail us at all. Ralph Banking companies, I beloved certainly. I raised him in my property.”

On the night time of May perhaps 13, Jeremiah and his brother have been remaining overnight Adams’ dwelling in Skokie to celebrate Jeremiah’s 9th birthday, which experienced been two times previously.

Meantime, Anderson, Richard Financial institutions, and Clark used far more than an hour casing the grandparents’ household that evening, and then soon soon after midnight on May perhaps 14, Anderson and Banking companies “fired a hailstorm of bullets into the television area” of the dwelling as Jeremiah and his brother were being laying on a blanket on the ground, observing Tv set as their grandmother slept on a nearby couch, in accordance to prosecutors.

A whole of 35 shots were fired into the property by way of a ground ground window, placing equally boys as they have been on the floor.

Adams claimed, following she woke up and recognized Jeremiah had been shot, she rushed to his facet, and tucked her arm beneath him, and could feel his blood dripping as a result of her fingers.

“I begun yelling, ‘Call the police! Contact the police!'” she reported. “I relive it each individual working day because then.”

Jeremiah endured 11 gunshot wounds, and was taken to Evanston Medical center, where he was pronounced useless. His 6-year-outdated brother was shot in the foot, and endured damaged toes and bones.

Proof technicians recovered 20 9mm bullet cartridges and 15 .40-caliber shell casings from the gangway exterior the household. The blanket the boys had been lying on experienced 8 bullet holes, and several bullet holes ended up uncovered on the flooring of the tv room.

“To know that another person would occur and shoot my household up with my spouse and children in there, and taking into consideration the peoples that did that, I am generally barbecuing, I’m often cooking, I constantly have my grandkids around. They knew that we was in that household as a family,” Adams claimed.

Adams said she and her husband did not go to Jeremiah’s birthday bash two times just before the capturing, due to the fact she was nervous another person was going to shoot her spouse. So as a substitute, they had their grandchildren in excess of to their property on Could 13 for a barbecue to rejoice Jeremiah’s birthday, and planned to go to a Skokie water park the following day.

“He a sweetheart. He loves coming above to his nanny’s household. He loves for me to prepare dinner. He just liked remaining with us, and I liked obtaining him more than any prospect I obtained,” she claimed.

Law enforcement declined to speculate on exactly why Clark may well have blamed Jeremiah’s loved ones for her boyfriends’ loss of life.

According to prosecutors, mobile phone knowledge confirmed Banking institutions, Anderson, and Clark to start with went to the victims’ house all-around 6:10 p.m. on May well 13, and put in about 20 minutes in the region, right before likely their separate approaches, and returning to the victims’ home all around 10:30 p.m. 

The Nissan Altima they ended up driving was caught on digital camera circling the block that night, just before pulling into an alley, wherever they stayed for far more than an hour just before Banks and Anderson begun shooting soon after midnight.

At the time of the shooting, Anderson was on probation, just after he was sentenced in late March to 30 times of household confinement and 18 months’ probation for an armed robbery conviction.