Manuel Mejia Perez was 13 when he was shot and killed in a narrow alley off the 300 block of Des Plaines Street in Joliet on June 2, 2025. Officers arriving around 4:40 p.m. found the seventh grader on the ground with fatal wounds; the Will County Coroner ruled the death a homicide. His family and community responded with a GoFundMe for funeral costs, flowers, and public grief, while his mother told reporters her son was innocent and demanded justice.

Police described the victim and the suspect as knowing each other and said the shooting was not random. Within forty-eight hours investigators arrested a 15-year-old Joliet boy and charged him with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon; authorities did not release the juvenile’s name. Detectives reported the teen allegedly shot Manuel twice during a dispute and that the same juvenile had been detained in an unrelated matter in May prior to being questioned about the killing.

If anyone knew Manuel or has information about the events in that alley, please come forward to assist the investigation.