Bernard Pippen

Bernard Pippen, an 18-year-old African-American man from Chicago's Roseland neighborhood, was a life cut tragically short on a cold January evening. Known affectionately to some as "LilB" or "BP," he is remembered by those who loved him and who lit candles in his memory online. His death was a stark illustration of the gun violence that plagued the city, occurring on a weekend that saw three other homicides and more than a dozen people wounded in shootings across Chicago.

The evening of Saturday, January 17, 2015, turned fatal for Bernard in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the city’s South Side. Around 6:50 p.m., he was with a group of friends near the intersection of 95th and Halsted streets. A separate group of teenagers, which included 15-year-old Diasee Scott, was nearby. According to prosecutors, the two groups began shouting rival gang slogans at each other. The verbal confrontation quickly escalated into a physical fight right on the street.

As the brawl unfolded, Chicago Police Department officers who were driving south on Halsted Street happened upon the scene. One of the officers witnessed the moment the fight turned deadly. He saw Scott, who lived on the 9500 block of South Green Street, pull out a handgun and fire three times into the fray. One of the bullets struck Bernard. Officers responding to a call of shots fired found him lying on the ground in the 9600 block of South Green Street with a catastrophic gunshot wound. The bullet had entered his neck and traveled through his chest. The Cook County medical examiner’s office pronounced Bernard Pippen dead at the scene at 7:10 p.m.

Immediately after firing the shots, prosecutors said, Scott looked directly at the police officer who had witnessed the act and then fled on foot. The Chicago Police Department launched an immediate and intensive search for the shooter. A police helicopter was deployed to the scene to provide aerial support for the officers on the ground. The search was brief; officers located Scott hiding about a block away from where the shooting had occurred. He was taken into custody on Sunday, the day after the murder.

Following his arrest, Diasee Scott was identified as the shooter by both a witness and one of the tactical officers who had been at the scene. Despite being only 15 years old, the severity of the crime and the strength of the evidence led prosecutors to charge him as an adult with one felony count of first-degree murder. His name, initially withheld from public reports because of his age, was released once the decision was made to try him in the adult court system.

On Monday, January 19, 2015, just two days after Bernard’s death, Scott appeared for a bond hearing. Prosecutors laid out their case, highlighting the police officer's eyewitness account of the shooting. A judge ordered Scott to be held in lieu of a $2 million bail. The case then entered the Cook County court system for litigation. The swift arrest and charging of a suspect brought the initial police investigation to a close, and authorities marked the case as solved.