
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 15, 1994                   TAG: 9410170055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                 LENGTH: Medium

BOY, 5, REFUSING TO STEAL, DROPPED FROM 14TH FLOOR

Despite his brother's frantic effort to save him, a 5-year-old boy was dropped to his death from the 14th-floor window of a housing project because he wouldn't steal candy for two older boys, police said.

The suspects, ages 10 and 11, could get up to five years' probation if convicted. Police said they admitted the killing.

``It's truly mind-boggling,'' said prosecutor Kay Hanlon. ``Every day you think you've seen as bad as it's ever going to get here and something like this happens.''

Police said Eric Morris plunged to his death after a desperate struggle Thursday night at the window of a vacant apartment on Chicago's South Side.

His 8-year-old brother, Derrick, fought with the two older boys trying to push Eric out the window and pulled him back from the brink once, but then lost his grip when one of the older boys bit Derrick's arm.

The killing was the second horrific episode of child-against-child violence in Chicago in little more than a month.

On Sept. 1, 11-year-old Robert ``Yummy'' Sandifer was found shot to death after he became the subject of a police search in the shooting death of a 14-year-old girl. Police said Sandifer was killed by fellow gang members worried about an intense police investigation to solve the girl's death. Two boys, ages 14 and 16, are charged in Sandifer's killing.

``Our victims are getting younger and our offenders are getting younger,'' said police Cmdr. Charles Smith.

Eric and his brother lived in a dilapidated apartment house separated from the high-rise building by a dirt courtyard strewn with hypodermic needles and other litter. A man who answered the door at the family's apartment said Eric's mother was not home.

Smith said of the victim's brother, ``He's horrified, he's scared and he's terrified, just like any 8-year-old would be.''

One of the suspects had been arrested five times since March on charges including theft, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon. Last week, he was sentenced to home and school confinement on the weapons charge. Both boys said their fathers are in prison.

A judge ordered the boys held at the county juvenile home until a hearing Monday.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB