A 17-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting 15-year-old Phillip Mitchell in the Grand Crossing neighborhood earlier this summer was ordered detained in custody Saturday.
Multiple witnesses and school employees identified the teen, Latoby Baines, as the person shown in surveillance footage firing a gun that killed Mitchell near the street in the 7100 block of South King Drive on July 10, authorities told a Cook County judge during a detention hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
Baines was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in connection with Mitchell’s death, after Chicago police and the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested him Thursday in the 700 block of East 132nd Street. He was staying with his girlfriend, which officers discovered during their investigation, according to an arrest report.
The report stated Baines didn’t have other warrants, wasn’t on parole or probation at the time of the shooting. He also wasn’t in a gang, the report added.
Prosecutors said Baines fired shots at Mitchell with a handgun, hitting him in the head and torso.
Police reviewed a city surveillance camera that at 5:40 p.m. captured two males dressed in black clothing approaching the victim in front of a restaurant and having a confrontation, according to a police incident report. One of the males, who was wearing a white face mask, then pulled a handgun and fired six shots at the victim before fleeing north on King Drive.
All six shots hit Mitchell, a Grand Crossing resident, who was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled his death a homicide.
In ordering Baines detained, Judge David Kelly said electronic monitoring or home confinement wouldn’t be appropriate because he isn’t confident in Baines’ capacity to comply, and that he posed too big of a risk to the community.
Baines returns to court on Tuesday.
