The teen' s school principal says the he had just transferred from another CPS school to an alternative school because he wanted to get out of his neighborhood and make something out of his life.
"He was real cool. Everyone knew him. He was a very nice young man. This is really tragic," said Robert Rhodes, the victim's cousin.
Greer was shot fatally in the chest Tuesday night while in the street with a group of friends at 415 S. Lotus Ave. He lost his life not too far away from his home in the 5500 block of W. Congress Parkway.
Greer was raised by his grandmother in the Austin community.
"He was a boy that did nothing to anyone. He got along with everyone," Jamilia Greer, the teen's sister, said.
The 17-year-old was a former student of Crane high school and had transferred this year to CSW Community Christian Alternative Academy where he was in his second year of high school.
"He said he wanted to get away from his old friends to see if he could get a new start. Come to school, try to graduate. [He was] very likable, an easy-going person. [He] did had no discipline problems, had great potential," said CSW Principal Myra Sampson.
Another CSW Community Christian student, Channon Taylor,18, was killed in a shooting in March.
"Students never have a chance to heal. It is getting warmer, and there is just fear. Kids walk around saying, 'I am next. I am not going to live. I am going to die.' This is not the way to rear kids when they are thinking there is no tomorrow," Sampson said.
Sampson says we have to deal with the violence because, if we continue to lose our kids, we will lose our nation. She added that the students feel they are trapped in a war zone with no where to turn for help and no time to heal.
