(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Police in Franklin Park have arrested a Melrose Park man after the fatal shooting of 9-year-old Ulysses Campos.
Prosecutors announced the first-degree murder charge against 37-year-old Javier Murillo on Tuesday.
Investigators said the shooting happened at about 10:15 p.m., while the boy was playing with his cousins in an alley during his grandmother's birthday party.
Ulysses was struck and taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Murillo, 37, will be transferred to the 4th District Maybrook Courthouse, where he will have a bond hearing, officials said.
“This was a very tragic and sad event, and our prayers go out to the family of Ulysses,” Michael Witz, director of the Franklin Park Police Department, said in a press release.
“This was completely random,” said Karina Cazares, Ulysses’ cousin. “We were celebrating my grandma’s 70th birthday in the backyard and someone chose to open fire at a group of kids, none of [whom] are gang-related or gang-affiliated.”
In a GoFundMe organized by Cazares, she wrote that Ulysses was a “kind-hearted, loving kid.”
“He loved playing video games with his cousins,” Cazares said. “He had a creative imagination and was always full of excitement.”
(The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.)
Related
Related
Listen to our new podcast Looped In: Chicago
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!