Charges were filed late Tuesday against an alleged gang member police accuse of beating a 14-year-old Logan Square boy into a coma last week as the younger boy walked home from his girlfriend's house.Esteban Miranda, 19, of the 1600 block of North Maplewood Avenue, is set to appear in court Wednesday, where he faces one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's office.
Meanwhile, the victim Brian DeLeon remains in a coma, and on Tuesday night, hours before charges were filed, Logan Square parents gathered to call for measures they hope will shield their children from violence.
DeLeon, a Phoenix Military Academy freshman, was brutally beaten and left for dead Sept. 13 near Yates Elementary School. While no charges have been filed, police have two people in custody.
“We feel like this is an isolated incident,” Chicago police Cmdr. Linda Flores said during a community meeting held at Yates on Tuesday. “The officers know what's going on. They know who the players are.”
A few dozen neighbors and parents, many with their children, gathered in the school’s auditorium at the invitation of Principal Harry Randell and police to talk about safety.
Most troubling, they told police, is security at the playground that abuts West Bloomingdale Avenue, where DeLeon was found by his girlfriend in a pool of blood.
Yates students spend recess swarming around the slides and swing sets there. But in the afternoons, it is designated as a community park.
Recently gang activity has been observed there with increasing frequency, police said.
Parents said when they call police to report suspicious people in the park, the “gangbangers scatter” when patrol cars arrive. But they quickly return.
“We know that sometimes the gangbangers come in the playground,” Flores said. “We’ve stepped up patrols.”
Parents called on the school to keep the gates to the park locked at night and install more surveillence cameras and lights.
On more than one occasion, Principal Randell said, the school surveillance camera trained on the small park has been disabled. “As soon as we replace it, they come with their paint and paint over the lense,” he said.
Ald. Rey Colon, 35th, also in attendance at the meeting, urged parents to fight back by working with police.
“That’s our park,” he said. “We’ve come so far. We cannot allow (the community) to go back to the way it was before.”
School officials plan to start locking the gate at night and agreed to request additional video cameras.
“We love him dearly,” Randell said of DeLeon, who visited the school days before the attack to show off his new uniform.
An uncle said the boy’s condition has not improved since the attack. He remains at Children’s Memorial Hospital and has not opened his eyes nor spoken nor responded to touch.
Earlier Tuesday, sources had said that there were two men in police custody, one age 19 and the other 21 or 22, and that both were allegedly Maniac Latin Disciples.
A source said they mistook DeLeon as a rival member of the Spanish Cobras.
“They rolled up on him and attacked him … they thought he was a Cobra,” the source said, adding there is no evidence Brian belongs to a gang. “He's a good kid.”
It was unclear Tuesday night whether additional charges would be filed aside from those against Miranda.
Brian was attacked at about 9:20 p.m. Sept. 13, just a few minutes after leaving his girlfriend Dayana Vazquez's house, where the two had walked her puppy.
She had been calling her boyfriend Brian to see if he got home OK, but then she noticed a message from his phone. She heard music, then someone saying "Cobra Killa," then more music and scuffling. Dayana and her mother rushed toward Brian's home and found him sprawled on a sidewalk with a large gash on his head.
On June 8, two girls—ages 2 and 7—were shot at a Northwest Side park by Anthony Bucio, an alleged Maniac Latin Disciple, who was aiming for rival gang members, authorities have said. Two days later, Superintendent Garry McCarthy vowed to come down hard on the gang.
“The entire organization is going to be held accountable for the actions of one,” McCarthy said at the time while surrounded by Avondale community residents at the Albany Park district headquarters.
Police have since arrested more than 100 members of the gang for various crimes.
