A Chicago youth basketball program on Wednesday mourned the death of one of their own; a 14-year-old boy shot and killed last week in the Loop.
Armani Floyd's friends and family said he was an avid basketball player. On Wednesday, Chicago Bulls forward Dalen Terry met with Project sWISH Chicago, the after-school basketball organization Armani played with, to share a meaningful message with dozens of teens.
Inside the Ogden Park fieldhouse on Wednesday, some of the young men and women in Project sWISH ate the only Thanksgiving meal they will have this week.
One of the men serving it was Terry, who took time to let teens at Project sWISH, a nonprofit basketball program, ask him anything they want.
"How tall are you?" one teen asked.
"6-7," Terry said with a laugh.
While Terry could throw back the latest lingo, he could also relate to what the young men and women in Project sWISH are going through.
"I think just staying off the streets. Obviously we are not dumb. We know what is going on," Terry said.
Armani's friends said he should have been in the room with all of them. Instead, the 14-year-old was shot and killed in the Loop last week near Adams and Dearborn streets. Another teen was wounded in that shooting. About 30 minutes earlier, seven teens were wounded in another shooting just blocks away outside the Chicago Theatre, near State and Randolph streets.
"I lost friends and family members due to gun violence before. So just understanding that, I try and tell them mostly to stay focused," Terry said.
Project sWISH founder McKinley Nelson said Armani's death is the first significant loss for many in the program.
"He pretty much taught me everything I know about basketball," Armani's friend, Justin Daily, said.
Justin was one of Armani's close friends. The two were together on the court, and Justin also was with Armani last Friday when he was shot.
"They got some video footage about who pulled out the gun and stuff," Justin said.
While no one was has been arrested for killing Armani, police have released photos and videos of a person of interest in the case.
"The only comment I have on that is that he looks like he could have been the age of somebody that could have been in our program," Nelson said.
Nelson and Armani's father both said they do not recognize the person police are looking for.