Taylor died Wednesday after suffering a gunshot wound to the head last weekend. The West Side Lawndale student is the 17th Chicago Public School student to die by a gun this school year. Two CPS students have died from stab wounds this year.
Eighteen-year-old Channon Taylor was the baby of the family of five children. Taylor was shot last weekend while sitting in the backseat of a moving car in the 1800-block of South Lawndale Avenue. His mother says he was not in a gang. He was an innocent bystander.
"He went into the restaurant and got the sandwiches and on the way home, someone out of nowhere, the shooting started. So he was shot," said Mandy Lindsay, victim's mother.
Taylor would have graduated in June from high school this year. His mother said he wanted to be a lawyer and help the underprivileged.
"He was my hero. He was an organ donor. He had always told me to donate his organs. I donated all his organs. He saved six lives already," said Taylor.
Taylor was in his third semester at an alternative school, the Community Christian Academy.
The principal says Taylor's death has been devastating for the students.
"It's becoming commonplace. We don't want our young people to grow up cold. We don't want them to grow up non-caring. And when you see and you're so intimate and close with them, it's going to have a negative impact," said Myra Sampson, Community Christian Academy.
Chicago Board President Rufus Williams says, this month, six CPS students have lost their lives to violence.
"There are multiple other children who have been dramatically affected, who have not died, who don't get in those numbers, who were shot, who are otherwise severely damaged for life, because of violence, and these things, it's just startling and uncomfortable," said Williams.
Williams says we have to do something dramatic to get guns off the street. People should not have to live in an environment that is worse than a war zone.
Channon Taylor's funeral will be this Saturday morning at Harmony Baptist Church on the West Side. A rally is planned for Friday at the State of Illinois Building in the Loop.
