An apparent dispute regarding Facebook posts lead to the killing of a 13-year old boy by an 18-year old one. Roberto Madrigal, 18, is charged with first degree murder after shooting a 13-year old boy last Sunday in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.
According to the Chicago police, Anthony Diaz was shot about 10:35 p.m. on Sunday. Diaz and his two sisters aged 15 and 17 had just left the house after a Facebook confrontation in which the girls had been involved, according to information provided by the boy’s father, Ralph Otero, 47. And while they were confronting some other girls regarding a Facebook issue and Diaz was recording the fight with his smartphone, he was shot in the chest all of a sudden. The boy was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital about an hour later.
This Friday the 18-year-old Roberto Madrigal was charged with first-degree murder for killing Anthony. Madrigal was also scheduled to appear for a bond hearing on Friday afternoon at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building.
“I’m devastated. The mom is devastated. We’re all in shock. My pastors are very devastated, because he’s a good kid. He was a good kid, honors student, and outgoing person. (…) All I ask is for justice. I don’t wish them harm. I don’t wish them anything bad, but unfortunately, we’re on this Earth, and we’ve got to pay for our mistakes,”
Ralph Otero, the boy’s step father said.
But in the meantime scandals are likely to go on, because according to Anthony’s mother, Laura de Domenico, her 17-year-old daughter is in a street gang and has had previous problems with the police. The woman explained how her daughter has a bone to pick with everybody and enjoys getting into fights. She is also afraid because after she learned that her little brother had passes away, the teen girl promised retaliation. Now both her parents are striving to make her change her mind so as to avoid other potential further tragedies in the family.
The mother admitted she was going to cry for her son for the rest of her life.
Neither of the parents know what the fight between the two boys had been about. Otero and his wife were sleeping when they got the call from Anthony’s oldest sister.