Man charged with murder in gang-related shooting of North Chicago teen

An 18-year-old North Chicago man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in what authorities say was a gang-related shooting death of a 14-year-old boy killed Sunday afternoon in North Chicago.

A bond hearing for Amireon C. Williams is scheduled for Tuesday morning in Lake County.

The victim, Lavon'ta Brown of North Chicago, died from multiple gunshot wounds, Lake County Coroner Chief Deputy Steve Newton said Monday afternoon following an autopsy.

Police believe Brown was targeted.

Brown was at a gas station at the corner of South Jackson and 10th streets around 5:15 p.m. Sunday when he encountered several people in a Chevy sedan, authorities said.

He and one or more people in the vehicle shot at each other. Brown was struck several times, and police have not yet said whether anyone in the vehicle was struck by Brown.

Sgt. Heather Cognac, a spokeswoman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said people at the gas station called 911 to report the shooting, but by the time officers arrived, the Chevy sedan had driven away.

As deputies were getting information on the car and tending to Brown, emergency dispatchers began receiving reports that a Chevy sedan had just smashed into an embankment near the corner of South Lewis Avenue and Belvidere Road.

Deputies arrived at the parking lot and found the sedan had lost a wheel in the crash and now was unoccupied. They determined that the people who were in the car had fled on foot, Cognac said.

Three people later determined to have been in the car when it crashed - two men and one juvenile - fled into a nearby store and were apprehended by police, Cognac said.

Brown was rushed to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly afterward.

Before Williams was charged, Cognac said it was possible one or more other people who were in the sedan when it crashed have not been apprehended yet. She said investigators are trying to find if others fled the vehicle and remain at large but stressed that there isn't any danger to the public.

There was no word on whether charges would be filed for the second man and the juvenile.