Posted on 06/29/2025 5:32:13 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
CWBChicago has obtained surveillance footage of a shooting that left one teenager dead and another gravely wounded near the Douglass Park swimming pool on Thursday evening.
Marjay Dotson, 15, died from a gunshot wound to his back, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. A 14-year-old boy, identified to the media by family members as Jeremy Herred, has undergone surgery for a gunshot wound to his neck.
On Saturday evening, Chicago police announced that murder charges had been filed against 55-year-old Charles Leto of Lakeview.
CPD and fire department personnel responded to the park at 1401 South Sacramento at 7:03 p.m. after 911 callers reported shots fired near the park’s basketball courts and pool.
Officers detained Leto, identified as a pool lifeguard or supervisor, at the scene. He told police the boys “attacked” him as he worked on his bicycle, according to a police report, and claimed to hold a concealed carry license, a fact confirmed by the Chicago Tribune.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at cwbchicago.com ...
Wow! Glad your Dad survived.
“Do not go where you are a target.”
Words to live by. Literally.
Officers detained Leto, identified as a pool lifeguard or supervisor, at the scene. He told police the boys "attacked" him as he worked on his bicycle, according to a police report, and claimed to hold a concealed carry license, a fact confirmed by the Chicago Tribune.
Newly surfaced surveillance video shows Leto kneeling next to an upside-down bicycle on a sidewalk near a parking lot as the two boys and a companion approach from several yards away. A woman is also seen approaching from the parking lot area.
This was a historically significant Chicago park when it was created in the 1870s. It was developed by the noted architect William LeBarron Jenney who also created a boulevard system in the same vicinity. The park was landscaped by Jens Jensen who was a noteworthy proponent of using natural plants and prairie restoration.
Regrettably, the surrounding neighborhood has changed and become an urban ghetto infested with criminals.
Well, he told them not to run.
In Cook County, Mr. Leto’s defense team faces a difficult path.
While a jury might conceivably accept a self-defense argument for the initial shot, his inability to justify the second firing fundamentally compromises the credibility of any defense for the first.
Surely there is more video. Looks cropped, on purpose, to give a limited time frame. Where did the female come from? Where did the youths come from? Related to slow moving vehicle?
The “kids” were huge,threatening....the shots were fired in response to threats is the way I see it...we have the right to be safe,.
Whether or not the video was cropped, there is no indication that the second victim, who was shot in the back, was armed. Nor does the footage show the second victim within ten feet of the shooter.
To all the “shot in the back” people, I’ll bet you two things. I can shoot at you without exposing the front of my body, and someone can turn around between the time the shooter’s brain says “Shoot” and the bullet hits them. It’s never cut and dried. Just a general comment, not necessarily related to this incident.
I couldn’t see what the guy with the backpack had in his hand when he stretched it out towards the guy fixing his bike.
But there is something fishy here.
See how the two guys walk in from the right side of the screen on the sidewalk. There is a third guy, but I don’t think he is with those two (the guy in the teal shirt and the backpack guy)
As they approach, they split off from each other, as if they were going to approach him from different directions.
The guy in in the teal shirt has something in his right hand, a bag of some kind, and he is fishing around in it with this left hand and appears to be holding whatever kind of bag it is at the level between his sternum and his navel.
But that black woman in the white dress comes walking up, and appears to come to a full stop creating a narrow gap between the crouched cyclist and the teal shirt guy. I have a feeling that words were being exchanged as soon a teal shirt guy and backpack guy step off the sidewalk and onto the grass.
Watch Teal Shirt Guy. Almost as soon as he steps on the grass, within a step or two, he is already pointing his face towards bike guy. I bet there is dialogue along the lines of “Why the **** do you have to bock the sidewalk with your dumbass bike for?”
The White Dress Girl stops, and if the Bike Guy wasn’t fixing his bike, you might think Teal Shirt and White Dress know each other or it was a pickup. But then the Teal Shirt Guy walks into the narrow space between the White Dress Girl and the Bike Guy.
That is a definite intrusion into the personal space of Bike Guy. But it could just be one of those things where Teal Shirt Guy and White Dress Girl just didn’t know which way to go, and Teal Shirt decided to cut though, entering Bike Guy’s space and Backpack Guy might just be pointing and saying “He has a gun!”
We just don’t know. But it sure looks to me like Teal Shirt guy takes an unnecessary detour into the personal space, almost knocking him over, and I don’t know what he is doing with his left hand, could just be repositioning what he appears to be carrying.
In any case, this guy is screwed. Witnesses may be able to comment on any words between them prior to the shooting, but whether the witnesses can be trusted for veracity is an open question. It could be that teal shirt guy entered his immediate personal space, White Dress Girl stopped, and Backpack guy closed in, and the guy felt trapped and overreacted.
He likely won’t get a fair trial.
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