Evanston police say they’ve charged 19-year-old Pierre Miller with gun law violations in the shooting death Wednesday of his 4-year-old nephew, Aaron Morales, in the family’s home at 1836 Dodge Ave.
Evanston police say they’ve charged 19-year-old Pierre Miller with gun law violations in the shooting death Wednesday of his 4-year-old nephew, Aaron Morales, in the family’s home at 1836 Dodge Ave.
Miller has been ordered held on $1 million bail. He’s charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, obstruction of justice and endangering the life of a child which resulted in the child’s death. He also faces a city ordinance violation for possession of a handgun. The endangerment charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, police said.
Police say that about a week before the shooting Mr. Miller brought a 9mm semi-automatic pistol into the family home and hid it in a bedroom. They say that after the shooting Mr. Miller hid the weapon by tossing it into the attic, where it was recovered by North Regional Major Crimes Task Force investigators who were processing the shooting scene.
Police investigating a report of a shooting found Aaron with a gunshot wound in his chest about 6:45 a.m. Wednesday. He was taken to St. Francis Hospital and underwent emergency surgery there before being transfered to Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he died Wednesday afternoon.
Police say none of the adults in the home have said they witnessed the incident, and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office is withholding a determination on the means and method of the child’s death until additional forensic tests are completed and recovered evidence is examined.