Endia Martin / Photo from Family
BY JON SEIDEL AND RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
The mother of the 14-year-old girl accused of shooting her onetime friend in the back after a feud on Facebook said Wednesday she is “so sorry” for the death of Endia Martin.
The alleged shooter’s mother, who the Chicago Sun-Times is not identifying because her daughter has been charged as a juvenile, told the Sun-Times that her daughter “feels bad too.” The girl disputed the official account of Martin’s death and told her mother after the shooting: “It did not happen like that.”
“She was very hurt,” the mother said of her daughter. “Her and the little girl used to be friends.”
But the mother claimed Endia, also 14, and her friends “jumped on” her daughter last year, and the feud picked up again recently on Facebook. She even said her daughter’s life was threatened, and that someone told her daughter they would “lay her where her daddy’s at.”
The woman said her daughter’s father died when she was 9 months old.
“She’s hurt about the whole situation,” the woman said.
Finally, the woman said she didn’t know about her daughter’s juvenile court hearing Tuesday afternoon, where the teenage girl faced charges that included first-degree murder and attempted murder without any family in the courtroom. The judge said at the hearing the girl’s mother “obviously” knew about it.
“We’ve never been through anything like this before,” she said.
Meanwhile, the girl’s uncle was ordered held on $3 million bail Wednesday. Cook County prosecutors said the paralyzed, wheelchair-bound man took the bus to hand her the fully loaded weapon knowing there would be a fight.
Before the 14-year-old suspect went to confront two girls about an ongoing dispute she had with them about a boy, she asked Donnell Flora for a gun, Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said.
Flora, 25, agreed with his niece’s request and got on a bus with the .38-caliber revolver Monday afternoon, Santini said.
Once at the 900 block of Garfield Boulevard, Flora gave the girl the gun before the shooting, Santini said.
The entire crime was captured on a cellphone video taken by a witness, prosecutors revealed Wednesday.
On Tuesday, prosecutors at the bond hearing for the 14-year-old suspect said that the gun had jammed before Endia was shot, but prosecutor’s discussing Flora’s case didn’t mention the gun jamming.
Instead, Santini said that the 14-year-old armed with a gun first pointed the weapon at the aunt of the 16-year-old victim who eventually was shot in the left bicep in Monday’s incident.
The aunt pushed the armed girl’s hand away but then the girl took the gun and hit the 16-year-old girl in the head with it, Santini said.
The 16-year-old tried swinging a lock on a chain at the girl with the gun but missed, Santini said.
The 14-year-old suspect then fired as the victims tried fleeing into a home.
Endia was shot in the back as she tried to escape the bullets.
After the shooting, Flora got his gun back, Santini said.
But he allegedly didn’t hold on to it for too long.
Flora gave the gun to a 17-year-old boy who was apprehended with it a short time later, Santinti said.
Both the 17-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl told authorities that Flora had given them the gun, Santini said.
Flora also allegedly confessed to giving the gun to his niece.
Flora, of the 8300 block of South Buffalo Avenue, is charged with murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm.
He uses a wheelchair and can’t use his legs after he was shot on June 17, 2010, assistant public defender Ruth McBeth said.
Flora has two previous felony convictions for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. He also has a 2011 possession of cannabis conviction.
The 14-year-old alleged shooter was ordered to remain in custody on Tuesday.
And the 17-year-old boy was expected to appear in Juvenile Court on Thursday for his role in the crime, according to State’s Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Lisa Gordon.