Teen charged in graduate student's slaying

Within the past week a PhD student at the University of Chicago was murdered in a robbery today we find out who committed the dirty deed...

A 16-year-old boy was charged with murder early today in the shooting death of a University of Chicago graduate student during an attempted robbery last week. Meanwhile, charges were pending against at least three other suspects alleged to have been involved in the incident, Chicago police said.

The boy, whose name was not immediately released, was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in the slaying of Amadou Cisse outside the victim's apartment at 61st Street and Ellis Avenue, Officer Amina Greer said.

He was also charged with attempted armed robbery, armed robbery, and aggravated discharge of a firearm in connection with two other incidents that occurred on or near the university campus moments before Cisse was killed, police said.

Sources said the boy was suspected of driving the vehicle used in all three incidents, but his name was being withheld while authorities finish preparing charges against the three other suspects.

Cisse, 29, a Senegalese doctoral candidate, was walking home to his off-campus apartment when he was shot in the chest and killed in the early morning hours of Nov. 19.

Minutes before the slaying, two women were robbed at gunpoint near the campus and a university staff member was chased and shot at in what police believe was another attempted robbery. Police have said they were looking for a group of males who allegedly attacked the victims and then fled in a light-colored four-door car.

The 16-year-old was arrested after detectives linked him to the car, which had distinctive red doors and was found days after Cisse's murder outside a South Side garage. He provided detectives with the names of his alleged accomplices, police said.

The suspects are all juveniles but will be charged as adults, the source said. They told police they needed money and were out looking for people to rob, the source added.

The area at 61st and Ellis is a changing area. New homes are being built and University of Chicago students are moving beyond this place called the Midway Plaisance. In fact a friend of mine who was at Chicago for his Master's degree lived on 61st Street. It was almost a couple of blocks from some low-income housing on Cottage Grove.

I could have speculated that this was about getting squeezed out of a neighborhood. Who knows the fact is a robbery occured and it resulted in the death of a doctoral student.