Family, friends mourn teen accidentally killed with shotgun

Family, friends mourn teen accidentally killed with shotgun
Chicago Vocational student's best friend is charged with involuntary manslaughter
By Robert Mitchum | Chicago Tribune reporter
September 23, 2008
Arthur Tyler was only five days away from his first game with the varsity football team at Chicago Vocational Career Academy. Friends and family said he couldn't wait to officially don the school's purple and yellow jersey.

But early Sunday morning, as Tyler was spending the night with his best friend in the South Side neighborhood of Englewood, a dangerous game with a shotgun ended with the 16-year-old Tyler accidentally shot and killed, police said. Tyler's friend was charged as a juvenile with involuntary manslaughter Sunday night, police said.

At Tyler's grandmother's house near the site of the shooting, his family struggled Monday with grief and an endless supply of unanswered questions about the circumstances of the teenager's early death.

"I know Arthur wouldn't play with no guns like that," said Tyler's grandmother, Carol Tyler. "He wasn't ready to leave here . . . he wasn't a troubled child."
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