Robert D. Gunn Jr., a 15-year-old boy from Chicago’s Far South Side, was shot on the afternoon of November 15, 2025, after a brief argument near his home along the 9200 block of South LaSalle Street in the Roseland/Princeton Park area. According to police, what began as a verbal dispute on the street escalated when an unknown offender pulled out a gun and fired, striking Robert in the chest before fleeing, leaving the block suddenly transformed from an ordinary Saturday into a crime scene
marked by sirens and police tape.
Emergency responders rushed him from the scene in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where doctors tried to save his life. The timeline released by authorities places the shooting around 12:38 p.m., in broad daylight, on a residential stretch that many families use every day, underscoring how sudden and public the violence was. Despite medical intervention, he was later pronounced dead, and officials formally identified him as Robert D. Gunn Jr., noting that he had been “lost to gun violence” in Chicago on that date.
In the hours that followed, the story of who Robert had been began to emerge alongside the bare police details. Pastor Donovan Price, a well-known advocate for families affected by shootings in Chicago, rushed to the hospital to be with Robert’s relatives and later described him as “the kid that you hope for,” someone noticeably kinder and different from many other teenagers. Price had known the family for some time and had baptized Robert earlier that summer, a small, hopeful ceremony that now stood in painful contrast to the suddenness of his death. Accounts from those close to him painted a picture of a quiet, low-key young person whose life revolved around family and everyday routines rather than trouble, deepening the sense of disbelief that he could be taken so abruptly.
Online memorials and fundraising efforts quickly appeared as relatives and friends tried to cope with both grief and the practical burden of funeral costs. A GoFundMe organized on behalf of his mother, Tiara Chatman, shared that Robert “fell victim to the gun violence in Chicago” and spoke of the shock of planning a burial for someone so young, remembering him as a beloved presence who brought joy and warmth to those around him. On the National Gun Violence Memorial and remembrance pages dedicated to Chicago victims, his name joined a growing list of lives cut short, each entry representing a family learning how to live with an irreplaceable absence.
For Robert’s family, the loss came layered on top of an earlier tragedy. Earlier in the year, his 12-year-old cousin Deliah had been shot and killed while at a home in the Calumet Heights neighborhood, an incident that led to charges against two teenagers and left twin sisters mourning their children months apart. Community coverage described how the family was “still grieving” that first loss when Robert was killed, turning their grief into a devastating repeat nightmare. As of the latest reports, Chicago police say no one is in custody for Robert’s killing and no suspect has been publicly identified; detectives in Area Two continue to investigate, with officials noting that there is no detailed description of the shooter and no announced motive, and that the case is one of several fatal shootings from that November weekend for which authorities have yet to make an arrest.
