Miles Thompson was a football star at Glenbrook North High School and had recently been offered a full college scholarship. To his family, he was a superhero.
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"He changed me as a person because he was so good, you couldn't dare disappoint this little boy," said Michael Cooper, his stepfather. "He was my little hero."
And it wasn't just his family who felt his draw.
"He was the son, the big brother, and the friend we all want in our lives," said Sonyia Anderson, his stepmother.
His tightly-knit blended family and the ever-expanding circle of people he embraced is reeling without Miles' oversized, warm-hearted presence.
"I miss my boy. I miss my boy," his father Marc Thompson said.
On July 7, the 18-year-old left his family's home in Northbrook to visit his dad and little brother in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. The following morning, 10-year-old Jonah spotted his big brother in the driveway.
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"I told my dad that Miles was out there sleeping," Jonah recalled. "He said, 'Go check on him.'"
That's when it all started to blur.
"I saw blood. I ran inside. I told my dad, 'Go downstairs. Miles is out there and he's not asleep,'" Jonah said.
Just one day before his 19th birthday, the star high school football player had been shot and killed.
"He didn't hang out on the West Side. Didn't know anyone on the West Side," his stepfather said.
His family - and police - still have little idea what happened. They're just clinging to each other, grieving, and missing their superhero.
Thompson's family said they are in communication with the Chicago Police Department. They said they are hopeful a witness or perhaps a piece of surveillance video will provide a detail that will help police quickly solve the case.