In the late hours of a March night in Southwest Philadelphia, the life of 17-year-old Tyshiem Chaney was tragically cut short. An African American male, Chaney was on the 5900 block of Larchwood Avenue on March 26, 2017, when he was shot multiple times in the chest. Police officers found him on the front steps of a home and rushed him to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, but he was pronounced dead shortly before midnight.
The shooting, it was later determined, occurred during a robbery while he was walking with two other young men.
Chaney split his time between Philadelphia, where his mother lived, and North Carolina, where he stayed with his grandmother. His grandmother had made efforts to provide him with a different environment, getting him involved in the community by volunteering at a food pantry and helping the elderly. He was known to be a talented athlete, excelling at basketball and football, and had a passion for making music beats. Despite these efforts to guide him on a different path, he became a victim of street violence.
The investigation into Chaney's murder led police to another 17-year-old, Ma-King Stewart. Authorities alleged that Stewart was in the midst of a violent crime spree. Fired cartridge casings found at the scene of Chaney's shooting reportedly matched a gun that Stewart had stolen earlier that same day. Stewart was already a suspect in as many as eight armed robberies and two other non-fatal shootings that had plagued the West Philadelphia area.
Ma-King Stewart was arrested and charged as an adult for the murder of Tyshiem Chaney. The charges against him included murder, robbery, and a host of related offenses. His arrest brought a resolution to the homicide case and also ended the string of violent robberies he was accused of committing. In the wake of her grandson's death, Chaney's grandmother founded an organization called Grandparents Against Street Violence to advocate for change and try to prevent similar tragedies from affecting other families.
