CHICAGO (STNG) -- Officials say 17-year-old Chicago Public Schools student, shot Monday morning, doesn’t have a disciplinary record at school or appear to have ever been in serious trouble with the police, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Martel Barrett was shot multiple times — including a wound to the head — at about 9:20 a.m. in the 5700 block of South Damen.
He was enrolled in Dyett High School, about 3 1/2 miles to the east. The opening bell at Dyett is at 7:50 a.m.
His family said he was getting ready to catch a bus to school when he was shot near a store where he was going to buy snacks.
“I just can’t believe this,” said his mother, Jacqueline Barrett.
Police said they didn’t know the motive for the shooting or why Barrett was not in school. Authorities described his attendance record as “spotty.”
Barrett was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he later died, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
He is the second student from Dyett to be shot and killed this school year.
On Sept. 11, Corey Harris, the 17-year-old father of an infant daughter, was shot by an off-duty Chicago Police officer after the officer saw him shoot someone, officials said. He wasn’t armed when the officer shot him, but a .40-caliber handgun was found nearby, a police source said.
Seven Chicago students have been killed in violent acts since the beginning of the school year. Most were gunshot victims.
Harris was the captain of his high school basketball team.
Harris' family and friends say the teen, a three-year varsity athlete at Dyett, had no police record and had never been involved with gangs.
"You can go to the school the principal, the teachers, the security -- nobody could give you bad report about my kid," said Harris' mother, Natasha Williams.
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