Kejuan Thomas | Facebook
Sixteen-year-old Kejuan Thomas was a good kid, who loved to draw and dance, but his greatest love was playing basketball. And that is what he was doing when he was shot to death Wednesday afternoon in a park in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the South Side.Thomas was playing ball with a group of teens about 4:30 p.m. at Bradley Park in the 9700 block of South Yates when a car with two male suspects inside pulled up, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
One of them jumped out of the car and fired shots.
Kejaun suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:46 p.m., authorities said.
Friends said on Facebook that Kejuan lived in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood, but often went to Jeffery Manor to play in the basketball program there because he felt the neighborhood was safer.
He was not involved with gangs and was focused on basketball, friends said. He also liked to play Pokemon.
"He was a good kid, never a gangbanger," his coach at Tilden Career Academy, Keith Johnson, said. "He was a good kid and really loved basketball. He could also draw and dance really well."
Thomas was entering his junior year at Tilden, where he was and A and B student, and played on the basketball team, hoping to win a college scholarship.
"He wore number 20 for my frosh-soph team and played small forward," Johnson said. "He really picked up on things well and could jump really well."
At candlelight vigil was conducted in the park, community activist Lamon Reccord posted this video:
A candlelight memorial for the ceremony will be conducted at Tilden Academy at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 22. Friends and mourners are asked to wear blue shorts and black jeans.
"I want to give my condolences to his family from Coach Keith and the Chicago Tilden basketball team," Johnson said.
--Homicide Watch Chicago