'We Love You, Shawno': Hundreds Remember Slain Hillcrest HS Freshman

COUNTRY CLUB HILLS, IL — Days after shots rang out following their homecoming game, the Hillcrest High School football team walked with arms linked to a vigil in memory of a fellow student. They laid their helmets against the school wall, and stood together to mourn.

Hundreds gathered Wednesday outside the high school to embrace the family of Marshawn Mitchell, a 14-year-old freshman at the high school who was killed in a shooting after the Sept. 15 game.

They came carrying balloons, flowers, signs and mementos in honor of Mitchell, whose mother Amanda Lenoir described as "a good kid." Students leaned on each other, embracing often and easily. The football team stood in solidarity in practice jerseys, near the memorial laid in Mitchell's honor.

Lenoir held tight to a framed photo of her only child Mitchell, as she walked toward the crowd and was encircled by family, friends and her son's classmates and teammates.

"My son ain't going to die in vain today," Lenoir said. "Because I'm going to do everything I can to fight for kids that are losing their lives all over this state."

Hazel Crest resident Marshawn Mitchell had just transferred to Hillcrest High School in County Club Hills, and was leaving the school's homecoming football against Oak Forest High School, when his mother says it appears he got caught in the crossfire between two parties, suffering a gunshot wound to the chest. Mitchell was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m. Friday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office.

"My son was a good kid," Lenoir told Patch previously. "My son was not in any gangs or anything. He was just an innocent bystander."

Mitchell had transferred from Brother Rice High School in Chicago, where Lenoir said he was having a difficult time and experiencing run-ins with racism. He had graduated from Prairie-Hills Junior High in nearby Markham, Lenoir said, and had been asking that she allow him to make the move to Hillcrest, where the majority of his former classmates attend.

Destiny Boyce, sophomore at Hillcrest High School, knew Mitchell since middle school.

"This still feels unreal, because it was Marshawn," Boyce told Patch, expressing her shock after the shooting. "Everybody could vouch for him, there was never a dull moment with him. He was so young, he was so happy to come to Hillcrest and be with his friends. I'm kind of mad about it, because he should have just stayed where he was at, but he wanted to play football, and that was his dream."

Boyce said the days after the shooting, school was jarring.

"It really hit me hard," she said. "... I felt like it was still unreal."

Boyce was at the game that night, but had left early with her mother. Afterward, she saw crowds in the field in front of the school.

"I still don't know what happened," she said."I want to know how this happened."

Boyce implores anyone who knows the parties responsible to come forward to Country Club Hills police.

"Give it up, just say it," Boyce said. "Nothing's going to happen to you, just say it."

Boyce said the school has a policy that only students are able to attend the games, but it's unclear if the parties involved in the shooting were students.

"I don't feel safe at the games anymore," she said,"because you never know what could happen now."

Amanda Lenoir told Patch Tuesday that police have identified suspects in the shooting, but have not yet been able to take action.

"I’m just a little bit angry right now," she told Patch, "and I’m not getting any good news that I want to hear from the police. It’s hard getting people to come forward."

Amanda Lenoir's cousin La Africa Lenoir, said the family is struggling to grasp their new reality.

"We've never been hit hard like this," Lenoir said. "We've never had something this devastating. ... This shit is killing our family."

Mitchell knew Lenoir as "auntie," she said, as she recounted that at a recent family reunion, Mitchell had jokingly pushed her in a pool. And a family member had taken him driving in a Tesla— Mitchell so looked forward to getting his permit at 15.

"I call him 'Kool-aid' because of his smile," she said, laughing. "Now I can't see that pretty smile. ... We're a close-knit family. We are together."

Mitchell had stayed "on the right track," his mother told Patch, and had avoided gang affiliation and violence. Lenoir said Amanda had sought peace and safety in the suburbs.

"They thought they were escaping it, moving out of the city," La Africa Lenoir said.

She begged anyone with information on the suspects to speak to police.

"Please, I'm begging you with every breath I have, come forward," she said. "It's not about snitching. I know it's going to hurt, because if it's a child that's 14 that committed it, another family loses a child for the rest of his life."

A $4,000 reward is being offered for any information on the shooting, CBS2 reports. Hillcrest HS parent Stringer Harris and the Hillcrest Alumni Association are behind the reward. An additional community reward of $5,000 is being offered.

"Please, help me get justice for Marshawn,"Amanda Lenoir told Patch Tuesday. "Anybody that knows him, knows he didn’t deserve that."

A GoFundMe has been started to support the family with expenses such as private investigators, community outreach, and time lost at work.

The crowd chanted "Justice for Marshawn!", and after Amanda Lenoir thanked those who have been there for her family, they released balloons into the sky.

"We love you, Marshawn! We love you, Shawno! Forever!"