Bus shooting suspect turns himself in
A man wanted in connection to the fatal shooting of a girl on a CTA bus earlier this week has surrendered to police at a church.
The man's mother recognized him after police released a surveillance tape from the bus taken at the time of the shooting.
On Sunday night, police say a man on the bus quarreled with another male rider. The suspect got off at 71st and Cottage Grove and then fired a shot back into the bus before fleeing on foot.
Kiyanna Salter, 17, was shot. She later died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The CTA and Chicago police released surveillance video of the man they believe is responsible for the fatal shooting. Patricia Wilson said she immediately recognized the picture as her son.
Wilson said she doesn't know where his, but she plead publicly for him to turn himself in to a West Side church attended by the family or call the church's pastor. It appears the man did that.
"I need you, baby, to turn yourself in," she cried. "Please, you just don't know what's going on. You have to turn yourself in. You have to do it now, please."
Wilson says her son is the one police are looking for, the one CTA security cameras captured seconds before a man exited a bus, then turned back fired.
"I need him to turn himself in, so we can all find out exactly what happened," Wilson said. "If he did it, then he'll pay the price. If he didn't, then God known I want my child to be safe and come home."
Police confirmed Wilson's son is a suspect in the murder. ABC7 does not release the names of suspects unless they are charged with a crime.
After a meeting with detectives Tuesday night, Wilson and her pastor made a public plea with the hope of avoiding a potentially deadly confrontation on the streets.
"They're afraid, same as we are. They figure he has a gun and will shoot him, which is very possible since they think he's killed someone already," said Pastor Vesta Dixon, Evening Star M.B. Church. "That's the police officers' fear. We talked with them last night."
On Wednesday afternoon, two families were connected by two emotions: fear and grief.
"I'm so sorry, God knows I am. I'm sorry for your loss," Wilson said. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I just don't know."