Teen killed by officers was armed, police say
By Jeremy Gorner | Tribune staff reporter
11:10 AM CDT, September 28, 2007
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Two Chicago officers fatally shot a 15-year-old Thursday night on the Southeast Side after he aimed a gun at them, police said this morning.

At about 9:45 p.m., two South Chicago District tactical unit officers were driving west on East 87th Street when they heard a gunshot, police said. When they continued to Escanaba Avenue, they saw a teen fire a gun.

The officers chased the teen and caught up with him in an alley between Exchange and Commercial Avenues, police said.

The teen turned toward the officers "with a .357 gun in [his] hand," Officer Hector Alfaro said. "In fear of his life, and for the safety of his partner," an officer then fired one shot at the teen's head, he said.
Meliton Recendez, who lived in the 2900 block of East 87th, was pronounced dead at 12:06 a.m. at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Police were trying to determine this morning if the teen shot someone else shortly before he was killed.

During the shooting, a wounded man was standing nearby on 87th, police said. That man was "maybe a victim of a gunshot fired by the offender," Alfaro said.

The wounded man's condition was unknown.

Meliton was a freshman at Bowen High School, Chicago Public Schools spokesman Mike Vaughn said.

Tribune staff reporter Jason Meisner contributed.

jgorner@tribune.com

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