U.S.
Teresa Crawford / AP
A suspect has been arrested in the fatal shooting this month of a 9-year-old boy on the Chicago's South Side, police said Friday.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Corey Morgan, 27, is in custody and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy told local newspaper the Chicago Tribune that a warrant had been issued for a second suspect.
The victim, Tyshawn Lee, was gunned down Nov. 2 in what police say was a targeted gang shooting.
McCarthy has said the boy was lured into an alley and killed because of his father's gang ties.
Lee’s killing cast a national spotlight on a jump in violent crime in one of the country's largest cities. Authorities reported 391 murders from Jan. 1 to Oct. 25, up 18 percent from the same period of 2014.
FBI Director James Comey said recently that violent crime may be up in certain areas because police are holding back from aggressive tactics, fearful of being videotaped and accused of brutality.
News of the arrest on Friday came the same day activists planned to stage a protest over the shooting death of a black teenager by a white Chicago patrolman in an incident caught on police dashboard camera.
Other experts say the rise in violence in Chicago and elsewhere in the nation was likely not caused by a weakening of police action but rather by the ready availability of guns or a growing heroin trade.
Al Jazeera and wire services
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