A Cook County judge on Tuesday ordered a man detained in the March shooting death of his 13-year-old nephew after prosecutors said the two were in a room alone when a gun went off, killing the boy.
Kemonte Rice, 25, is facing felony counts of child endangerment causing death and obstructing justice in a shooting that killed 13-year-old Tawon Tribble Jr. on March 24 in a home in the 500 block of West 65th Place in Englewood.
Around 5 p.m. that afternoon, Tawon went over to a residence where his uncle lived, as he often did, according to Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Mike Pekara. About an hour later, family members heard a loud boom.
Tawon ran out of a bedroom he was in with Rice, Pekara said, and told his relatives that the gun went off. He then collapsed on the kitchen floor.
Rice told multiple conflicting stories to police and family members, according to Pekara, including that he asked the boy to unload the gun and clean the bullets.
“I don’t know if we’re ever going to truly know and understand what happened in room,” Judge James Murphy said as he ordered Rice jailed while awaiting trial. “But what we do know is … a gunshot victim comes out with a hole in his chest.”
Detectives recovered the gun and matched it to the shooting, Pekara said. A witness also identified the gun as one Rice was known to have possessed.
“This 13-year-old child was killed and is not here because of your actions,” Murphy said.
Rice was initially questioned and released before he was arrested on Monday, according to police.
According to court records, Rice was released on electronic monitoring about six months before the shooting, after he was charged on Oct. 1 with aggravated criminal sexual assault and unlawful use of a weapon.
In that case, a woman told police he pulled out a gun and ordered her to continue having sex with him, court documents say.