Fontaine Torrez Sanders, a 19-year-old African-American man known to his loved ones as “BJ,” was a source of immense joy and pride for his family. He was the only child of his mother, Corniki Bornds, who described him as the center of her world. “He was the joy of my life,” she recalled. “If nothing else happened in my life, having him, my life was complete.” A graduate of Marshall High School in Chicago, Fontaine was just weeks away from his own graduation from Robert Morris University and was looking forward to his 20th birthday. He was a talented basketball player, and his friends spanned from his grammar school days to his time playing for the Amateur Athletics Union.
On the morning of April 10, 2017, during his college spring break, Fontaine and his friends were walking to the outdoor basketball courts at Franklin Park in his North Lawndale neighborhood. It was around noon when a vehicle drove past the group in the 4300 block of West 15th Street, circled around, and passed by again. Fontaine, a typical teenager, was looking down at his phone when shots were fired from the car. A bullet struck him in the head. A 20-year-old man with him was also wounded, shot in the arm. Paramedics rushed Fontaine to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he fought for his life for more than a day. He was pronounced dead at 2:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, 2017.
The Chicago Police Department handled the investigation into the shooting. Detectives told Fontaine’s mother that her son was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, a sentiment she could not accept. “How could a kid be in the wrong place at the park?” she later stated. “He wasn't in the wrong place. The shooter was in the wrong place.” The investigation led to the arrest of two individuals, Zeron Moody and Devin Palmer, who were subsequently charged with first-degree murder in connection with Fontaine's death.
The case proceeded slowly through the Cook County court system. For six years, Fontaine’s family awaited a trial, hoping for justice for their son. However, in 2023, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office offered the two defendants a plea deal. Moody and Palmer pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of aggravated battery with a firearm. The murder charges were dropped. The judge sentenced them to an additional six years in prison beyond the time they had already served while awaiting trial.
The outcome was a devastating blow to Fontaine’s mother and supporters. The feeling that justice had not been served was profound. The judge overseeing the case reportedly remarked on the leniency of the outcome, stating, "Sometimes life isn’t fair." For Corniki Bornds, the plea deal felt like her heart was being ripped open all over again. In the wake of her son’s death, she found solace and strength in a support group called Parents for Peace and Justice, connecting with other mothers who had lost children to gun violence in Chicago.
To honor her son’s memory and reclaim the space where his life was taken, Corniki Bornds began organizing an annual basketball tournament at Franklin Park. The event brings together Fontaine’s friends from every stage of his life to play the game he loved, transforming a place of tragedy into a celebration of life. “I tell everybody when I go there, ‘I’m not going to claim this as the place where my son died. It’s the place my son lived,’” she said. As of October 2023, the case is considered closed with the sentencing of Zeron Moody and Devin Palmer, but for Fontaine's family, the fight for a sense of justice and peace continues.
