Stepdad: Boy, 13, shot dead on NW Side during confrontation over Facebook

A 13-year-old boy was shot to death Sunday night in the Northwest Side Belmont Cragin neighborhood. / photo from Network Video Productions

(CHICAGO) A 13-year-old boy who was shot to death Sunday night in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood had sneaked out of his home with his sisters to confront someone over posts on Facebook, according to a family member.

Anthony Diaz and two of his sisters, ages 15 and 17, left their Northwest Side home about 10:35 p.m. to confront someone over Facebook posts, said Anthony’s stepfather, Ralph Otero, 47. He said the teens got jumped and somebody pulled out a gun.

Chicago Police said the boy was walking with a group in the 6000 block of Grand when someone walked up and opened fire, striking him in the left side of his body. The bullet exited through his chest.

Otero and his wife were sleeping when they got a call from Anthony’s 17-year-old sister saying he had been shot.

“I saw him lying on the ground about a block away from our house,” Otero said.

The boy was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office could not confirm the death.

The shooting happened near the family’s home. Otero, an evangelical preacher, said they moved to the neighborhood in November from Kostner and Armitage. Anthony was one of six siblings.

“We just moved there from a bad area because it’s supposed to be better, and this is what we got,” Otero said.

“He’s a good student, he’s not a gangbanger. He didn’t give us any headaches,” Otero said. He said Anthony, who went to Burbank Elementary School, loved basketball and watched the Bulls game Sunday evening.

“This is unbelievable,” Otero said.