Clifton Frye, a 22-year-old male from Chicago, IL, was tragically shot and killed on June 18, 2015. The incident stemmed from a Facebook comment Frye made about a slain local rapper named Shaquon Thomas, who performed under the name "Young Pappy." Frye was shot on June 1, 2015, in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. He was initially taken to Presence St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in full cardiac arrest but was revived and placed on a ventilator.
He was later transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he remained unresponsive and on a ventilator until his death.
The shooter, Germel Dossie, a 17-year-old male, was charged with aggravated battery and attempted murder shortly after the incident. Dossie had recognized Frye as the person who made the Facebook comment about Young Pappy and decided to confront him. On the afternoon of June 1, Dossie asked a friend to drive him to the Rogers Park neighborhood, where he spotted Frye standing on a corner. Dossie, carrying a large gun, ran towards Frye and shot him three or four times. After the shooting, Dossie demanded to be driven away and was later dropped off at Glenwood Avenue and Pratt Boulevard.
During a hearing on June 11, 2015, at the Leighton Criminal Court Building, Dossie was ordered held on $1 million bail. Following Frye's death on June 18, 2015, Dossie's charges were upgraded to first-degree murder. In court, Assistant State's Attorney Akash Vyas did not specify what Frye had written on Facebook, but it was clear that the comment had provoked Dossie's violent response. Surveillance video captured Dossie running from an alley towards Frye and firing the shots. The footage also recorded the license plate of the car Dossie was in, leading to his arrest.
Dossie, a sophomore at Truman High School and a member of the Insane Cutthroat Gangsters, a faction of the Gangster Disciples, was arrested after police officers saw him get out of an Albany Park apartment and into a car. They followed and arrested him in the 3900 block of West Montrose Avenue. The case highlighted the dangers of social media interactions and the potential for online comments to escalate into real-world violence.
