As childhood friends Monterio Williams, 17, and Robert Boston, 16, left a downtown high school at dismissal time in late January 2024, three masked gunmen pulled up in a stolen SUV and shot and killed the boys in broad daylight, prosecutors said in court Saturday.
One of the alleged gunmen, Tommie Coleman, was ordered detained Saturday during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. The 22-year-old Pullman man, who faces first-degree murder and attempted-murder charges, was identified by witnesses and through Instagram posts, according to prosecutors.
“It doesn’t get much more violent than that,” Judge William Fahy said when ordering Coleman detained.
There was a history of disputes between the gunmen and the victims, prosecutors said. One of the gunmen, who hasn’t been charged, attended Innovations High School with the victims, and another died in June.
A surveillance camera at a nearby business captured what happened when the boys left school around 12:30 p.m. Jan. 26, 2024, prosecutors said.
A dark blue Infiniti SUV with no front license plate pulled up in front of the school doors. The three shooters, all masked, got out of the vehicle and ambushed the boys from behind as they walked in front of CTA elevators.
The gunmen fired for about 15 seconds, prosecutors said, as pedestrians ran for cover and the boys fell to the ground. Williams sustained six gunshot wounds and Boston had three. Both were pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. A 25-year-old woman’s jacket sleeve also was struck by a bullet, and she suffered a bruise.
Multiple witnesses observed the shooting and saw the men carrying pistols; the witnesses included the driver of a nearby BMW, a valet driver parked in front of a jewelry store and another student at Innovations High School who the boys were with seconds earlier, prosecutors said. Police also recovered 22 fired cartridge casings that analysis showed were from three guns.
The gunmen fled southbound on Wabash Avenue, prosecutors said. Detectives determined that the stolen Infiniti belonged to a woman who works at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and they worked to track it using surveillance footage, license plate readers and its “identifiable exterior features.” They tracked it from a parking lot in the South Loop to the school, and then as it fled to the South Side, Dolton and Calumet City.
Police also followed a tip to what they believe was one of the gunmen’s Instagram accounts. They found an Instagram story, posted about 18 minutes after the shooting, of the gunmen together. The suspect who is now dead “sang the verse of a song making references to being masked and armed,” prosecutors said. Witnesses also recognized Coleman in music videos posted on YouTube after the shooting, prosecutors said.
Police also later found that Coleman posted videos to his own Instagram account showing him sitting in the front seat of the Infiniti wearing latex gloves and displaying handguns, prosecutors said.
Coleman, who was arrested Wednesday, was convicted in 2021 of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon in DuPage County, prosecutors said. He also has pending cases for auto theft and possession of a machine gun in Lake County, Indiana.
Coleman’s defense lawyer argued that the shooting was a “chaotic incident” and that surveillance footage may be unclear. She said Coleman lives with his mom, has a 2-year-old child and works as a plumber and in construction.
Fahy said, though, that Coleman poses a “real and present threat” to the community, especially because the shooting was in the middle of the day in a highly congested part of the city.