Pedro Ramirez told his best friend something once that nobody expected to carry the weight it carries now.
“He always said, I will never miss school unless I’m very sick, or unless I’m dying,” recalled Mario Rosales, Pedro’s closest friend. “He actually died, so it really hurts my heart about those words that he said now.”
Pedro Ramirez was 17 years old. He was a straight A honor roll student at Tilden High School on Chicago’s South Side. He played on the soccer team and the volleyball team. He was born in Mexico and came to the United States with his family when he was five years old.
He had a four-year-old sister. He wanted to study engineering in college. And on the morning of Tuesday, May 26th, he walked out his front door headed to school and never came back.
At around 7:40 a.m. in the 5000 block of South Throop Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, a stolen black Jeep Cherokee carrying four masked individuals pulled up and at least two of them got out with a long gun and opened fire.
The barrage of rifle rounds was directed at a red minivan nearby, but Pedro was walking westbound on the south side of 51st Street and was struck. He collapsed on the sidewalk.
Two men inside the minivan, ages 55 and 61, were also hit but managed to drive away and call 911. Pedro was rushed to Comer Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:18 a.m.
He had just been walking to school. There were only days left in the school year.
A Family Shattered and a Community Rallying
Pedro’s mother Asucena Velazquez was at home when the hospital called. She rushed there and was met with news no parent is ever prepared to receive.
“It never crossed my mind that my boy would get hurt going to school,” she said. “They robbed my son of his future.”
His stepmother Eloisa Garcia was also at the hospital that morning, asking anyone who would listen for answers.
“We rushed to the hospital, and then they took us into the room,” she recalled. “I kept asking like, hey, what’s going on? Is he OK? Is he OK? They wouldn’t tell us. And then we got the news. So that was very devastating.”
In the days that followed, both women were overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from Pedro’s school, his teammates, and the wider community. “His school has been amazing. His classmates, his friends. You can feel the love,” Garcia said.
Velazquez echoed that sentiment while also speaking to who her son was as a person.
“He was a good boy. He was respectful and caring. He didn’t mess with anyone. I always knew he had a lot of friends but I didn’t realize how much they loved him. But they’ve shown me that my son was an excellent friend and classmate. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Pedro’s girlfriend Adelynn Peña is still trying to make sense of it all. “One point, you’re just talking, and then from another, he’s just gone,” she said. “It is very hard to just put that in your mind that you’re never going to see him again.”
Jessica Antes, an arts educator who taught Pedro improv and performing arts at Tilden the previous school year, remembered him as someone who led by example in the classroom.
“Pedro was always just like the first to step up, and be brave, and try something new, and encourage his classmates,” she said. “I wish he was here to see the impact he’s having on others.”
No One in Custody, Family Demanding Justice
Chicago police did take one person of interest into custody in the immediate aftermath of the shooting after a witness called 911 and officers chased the Jeep to near 44th Street and Wolcott Avenue. ‘
One pistol and one rifle were recovered from the vehicle. But three of the four occupants fled on foot and got away. The person taken into custody was later released without charges. As of now nobody has been charged in Pedro’s murder.
Garcia made clear the family is not going to let this go quietly. “We’re going to try to do whatever we can to make sure my son gets justice,” she said.
Chicago Public Schools released a statement saying the district was saddened by the loss and that support services would be made available to students and staff at Tilden. Students at the school held a peace walk in Pedro’s honor. A small memorial has been growing near the scene of the shooting.
Pedro Ramirez was a kid who never wanted to miss school. He was an athlete, an honor roll student, a son, a brother, a boyfriend, and a best friend. He came to this country at five years old and spent the next twelve years building a life and a future that was taken from him on a sidewalk on a Tuesday morning.
His family is asking for justice. His community is demanding it. A GoFundMe has been created to help Pedro’s family with funeral expenses