Community grapples with slaying of high school freshman as details emerge from homecoming night shooting

“I don’t know why they got it set up right here,” Elijah Johnson says, looking down at the shrine outside Hillcrest High School’s front doors. “Marshawn didn’t die over here. Marshawn died over there.”

Johnson, a 17-year-old student at Hillcrest, grew up in Chicago’s South Side before his family moved out to suburban Country Club Hills. He said his time in the city taught him how to tell the difference between the sound of fireworks and gunshots.

So he knew exactly what he heard around 9 p.m. Friday night as he was leaving Hillcrest High School’s Homecoming football game. The shots claimed the life of Hillcrest freshman Marshawn Mitchell, of Hazel Crest.

“At first, I didn’t know it was one of my friends,” he said, recalling when classmates started running his way and confirming that someone had been shot.

As Johnson remembered his friend Tuesday afternoon, the skies opened up and rain drove down, soaking the posters, candles and stuffed animals left to honor the 14-year-old Hillcrest student. Mitchell was shot near the school Friday night and later died in a slaying that has rocked the community.

“Everybody is in the library crying. Everybody is talking about him. It’s just very emotional,” said Tyshaun Porter, 14, a Hillcrest freshman who was friends with Mitchell.

Porter said his mom wants him to transfer schools since the murder. She worries he’ll be next. He wants to stay at Hillcrest with his friends but said it does rattle him to think about the similarities between him and Mitchell. Porter was supposed to go to the Homecoming game but his plans fell through.

In the days following the shooting, Mitchell’s classmates and family have been grieving and trying to make sense of Friday’s tragedy. Mitchell’s mom, Amanda Lenoir, fought through tears Tuesday shortly after receiving an update from Country Club Hills police.

“He was probably so scared in that moment,” Lenoir said, weeping as she reflected on their time together. “My life is over.”

She talked about bringing her son to the south suburbs from Chicago, thinking it would be safer for him.

“My son wasn’t a gangbanger,” Lenoir said. “My son wasn’t affiliated with no gang, my son wasn’t on a corner. My son was at the school.”

Each word became harder and harder for Lenoir to utter as she fought back sobs. She was texting with her son five minutes before she got a call from some of his friends who had heard he had been shot.

“I never knew in that moment that he was already dead,” she said.

Lenoir said police told her they have identified suspects in the case, and that her son was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“They know who did it, but it’s hard getting people to come forward,” Lenoir said. She said two students had a “prior beef” and Mitchell “just got caught in the middle.”

Country Club Hills police declined to add further information, noting “it is a juvenile case.” They did not clarify if they were referring to Mitchell or potential suspects. In a report posted shortly after the shooting, Country Club Hills police said they had been “dispersing a group of subjects near the school.”

Community members have offered $5,000 to anyone with information on the shooting that leads to an arrest. $4,000 is a private reward put up from a parent of a Hillcrest High School, according to CBS News Chicago.

Johnson, a junior at Hillcrest, has been to a lot of football games and sensed that the atmosphere on Friday was abnormal after some tense moments at the Homecoming Bonfire the night before.

“The vibes were definitely different,” Johnson said. “There were a few altercations during the bonfire on Thursday. It was some beef between certain groups. It kinda got real wild.”

Hillcrest and Bremen School District 228 officials declined further comment as the investigation continues.

While law enforcement works to piece together what — and who — caused Friday’s tragedy, Porter remembered Mitchell for his sense of humor.

“He was a class clown, not going to lie,” he said, laughing as he recalled Mitchell’s silliest moments. “He used to be dancing on top of tables, bugging his teachers.”

Porter plans to attend Mitchell’s funeral but fears his emotions will get the best of him.

“I want to go pay my respects but at the same time that’s going to hurt me,” Porter said. “I know I’m going to break down.”

Johnson is haunted by the act of violence that claimed his friend’s life, and could have harmed him too had he walked home that night.

“I actually live down there,” he said, pointing down the road. “If I would’ve walked home and walked past them I probably would have caught one of those stray bullets.”

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