Suspect arrested in murder of Chicago teen shot in Whiting, Indiana while visiting relatives

ByABC7 Chicago Digital Team WLS logo
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Suspect arrested in murder of Chicago teen shot in NW Indiana
A suspect has been arrested in the murder of a Chicago teen, 14-year-old Damien Abenante-Villa, killed in a March shooting in Whiting, Indiana.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An arrest has been made in the murder of a Chicago teen nearly two months after he was murdered.

The 14-year-old boy, Damien Abenante-Villa, was gunned down in front of his loved ones in Whiting, Indiana in March.

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Abenante was visiting family in Whiting to celebrate a birthday. He was walking with family members near a park near LaPorte and Ohio Avenues when someone fired shots in their direction.

Police took a 20-year-old suspect into custody on the North Side of Chicago, officials said Friday. Charges for the suspect have not yet been announced.

"I'm broken and I'm crushed," the victim's mother Amanda Abenante told ABC7 last month. "That was my whole world, and he's gone... he's gone."

The boy's father, Alexander Villa, was sentenced to life in prison last year, convicted in the shooting death of off-duty Chicago police officer Clifton Lewis in 2011, but controversy remains surrounding the conviction.