Eighteen-year-old Alexander Townsend was killed in a drive-by shooting Wednesday morning while walking home from school in the South Shore neighborhood.
The shooting happened at 10:21 a.m. in the 2600 block of East 75th Street, according to Chicago Police.
Townsend had just crossed the street when a black vehicle drove past and someone inside fired shots in his direction, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Townsend, who was shot in the hand and abdomen, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:08 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the 7600 block of South Cornell Avenue.
A witness said that Townsend and a friend were walking home with the friend's mother after being turned away from a school about two blocks from the crime scene when the shooting occurred.
The teens, both students at Excel Academy of South Shore, had been denied admission to the building because they failed to wear dress code-required bow ties, the witness said.
However, a spokesman for the school said in an email that Townsend "was NOT sent home from school; he left our campus of his own volition that morning."
Spokesperson Brittany Tressler said the school "does not send students away if they are in violation of the uniform policy. Instead, we loan students whatever they need to comply with the policy."
She added that, "Excel Academy is heartsick over this young man’s death."
--Chicago Sun-Times Wire