Prospectus

Issue date: 10/7/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Abel Uribe, Chicago Tribune Pallbearers carry the casket of sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert following his funeral service, Saturday, October 3, 2009, at Greater Mt. Hebron Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. Albert, a bystander during a gang fight, was beaten to death during the melee.

CHICAGO-Derrion Albert was laid to rest Saturday after a three-hour funeral attended by the well known, those who knew him well, and others who just wanted to pay their respects.

In death, the 16-year-old became the latest high-profile name on the long list of young Chicagoans who die violently. The teen's brutal beating with two-by-fours was caught on tape Sept. 24. The attack captured the nation's attention and elicited a response from the White House.

President Barack Obama is sending Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to Chicago this week in the wake of the fatal beating. Obama's spokesman has indicated the administration is preparing an initiative to address the national issues of youth crime and violence.

Derrion was violently stomped, punched and smacked with large planks of wood in a South Side brawl shortly after classes ended for the afternoon at Fenger High School. The melee was between two long-warring factions of Fenger students, kids bused in from the Atlgeld Gardens housing project and those who live in the portion of the Roseland neighborhood around Fenger known as "the Ville."

Four teens remain jailed on charges they murdered Derrion.

Eugene Bailey, 18, threw the "knockout punch," prosecutors said. Silvonus Shannon, 19, Eugene Riley, 18, and Eric Carson, 16, also are charged. Prosecutors said the four teens are seen on an amateur video attacking and killing Derrion.

Several ministers used the boy's death as a call to action, encouraging parents to reclaim and protect their children.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said he was bothered to hear a father say on a TV story about the case that young people are un-salvageable.

"I believe all of us can be saved," Farrakhan said. "[Derrion's] righteous life served as a redemptive force to make us get up and save our children."

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