Teen Activist Accidentally Shot, Killed By Friend: Prosecutors

CHICAGO — A friend of youth activist Caleb Reed shot him in the head unintentionally while firing at a car in Rogers Park, authorities said.

Reed, 17, was a leader in Voices for Youth in Chicago Education, or VOYCE, and worked with the group Good Kids Mad City. Officers dispatched to multiple 911 calls of a shooting found him face down on the sidewalk in the 1900 block of Granville Avenue around 1 p.m. on July 31.

Reed was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in critical condition. He died there two days later. A single fragmented bullet was found in his head. Three shell casings were found at the scene, prosecutors said.

Genove Martin, 18, of the 7200 block of South Vincennes Avenue, Chicago, was arrested Sunday on an entrance ramp to Interstate 94 and West 70th Street and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his friend, according to Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the killing was captured on video which shows Martin, Reed and two other friends walking together, one after the other, along the south side of Granville Avenue. Martin in front and Reed in the rear. Of the other two friends, prosecutors said one has cooperated with investigators while the other has not.

The video shows a gray hatchback Malibu driving slowly down the street and past the group before stopping about two houses away, according to prosecutors. Martin turns to look over his shoulder several times, then raises his left hand in the air several times toward the Malibu.

Prosecutors said Martin then reached into his pants and pulled out a gun, firing it multiple times with his friends in the line of fire behind him on the sidewalk. Reed is seen on video initially looking at the Malibu before ducking and running toward Martin once he begins firing, according to prosecutors.

Martin continued to shoot at the car as he started to run away, and a final bullet struck his friend in the head, prosecutors said, citing the video.

After Reed falls, return fire from the Malibu can be seen on video. Investigators determined no shots came from the car before Martin shot Reed in the head, prosecutors told Judge John Lyke Jr. at a detention hearing Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Martin waived his right to an attorney and identified a still photo of himself from the surveillance video, but he said he did not have a gun and claimed shots from the Malibu killed Reed.

When detectives showed him the video that shows him shooting Reed in the forehead, he had no response, according to prosecutors.

Martin was ordered held in lieu of the $30,000 cash portion of his bail after a judge rejected a request from prosecutors for him to be held with no bond.

The assistant public defender assigned to represent Martin told Lyke that Martin had planned to attend college in the fall, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Tribune reported the attorney said the 18-year-old had been shot the previous year and was involved in community service and mentoring.

RELATED: Activist, 17, Who Opposed Police In Schools, Killed In Shooting

In the wake of Reed's death, the schools councils at Mather and Roosevelt high schools voted to remove Chicago police school resource officers from the schools, with some students and parents at the time saying the decision honored the teen's work organizing to get police out of school and invest in support for Black youth.

“Caleb began to learn how institutional racism, segregation and disinvestment have been ravaging communities of color and creating trauma for every young person who lives in them,” Derion Smith, a fellow VOYCE, leader, said at a press conference after his killing. “And we knew that trauma wasn’t being healed by the police in our school. That money would be better spent on social workers and access to mental health services. That’s what we’ve been fighting for and Caleb was helping to lead the way.”

Representatives of VOYCE issued a statement following Tuesday's announcement of the charges against Martin.

"The amount of pain in losing our beloved Caleb Reed is unimaginable. He fearlessly fought to end the cycle of violence. But what Caleb fought for was not just to end violence. He was also working tirelessly to get help for young people who need to heal from the trauma they experience as a result of that violence," it said.

"What happened to Caleb is not a unique situation," the statement added. "The tragic action that led to Caleb's death is undeniably a call to invest in Black Lives."