Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Chicago Police left Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church with 24-year-old Milton Wardlaw in connection with the investigation of the CTA shooting death of Kiyanna Salter.

Wardlaw is the man that police said they were looking for in connection with that shooting. He's the man that you saw on video images that police released to the public to track him down.

Wardlaw said that he is innocent and he has nothing to hide.

"We had an argument, dude pulled a gun on me and he basically escorted me off the bus with the gun," Wardlaw said. "This should also be on camera. He escorted me off the bus with the gun. I'm like, 'Man, just don't shoot me in the back, please don't shoot me.' He cussed at me, like 'run' so I took off. I was running. I heard shots and I kept on running."

Salter' aunt, whose daughter was on the bus with Kiyanna, says she does not believe Wardlaw's story.

"The evidence will show who's telling the truth and who's lying," said Sonja Wilcox, victim's aunt. "I'm just glad he turned himself in. And now we can go on and do what we have to do to bury Kiyanna."

Wardlaw said he came forward after hearing please from his mother to come forward and turn himself in before something happened to him. He says he didn't come forward sooner because he didn't realize that people were looking for him in connection with that shooting.

"He did what I asked him to do, he turned himself in on his own accord, and my heart truly goes out to the bereaved family," Wilson said.

"I think the most courageous person in this whole thing is his mother," Bishop Dixon said. "She needs to be given the credit and the love."

Wardlaw and his family are questioning why Chicago Police have only released surveillance images of him and not the other man involved in the incident.

Earlier Wedneday, Wardlaw's mother was pleading with him to surrender to police in the fatal shooting of a teenage girl on a CTA bus.

As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, the woman believes her son is the one shown on Chicago Transit Authority surveillance video and photos in the shooting that killed Kiyanna Salter, 17, on the No. 71 bus Sunday night.

Bishop Vesta L. Dixon of Evening Star Missionary Baptist Church, 2050 W. 59th St., confirmed he is working with the mother. She came to the church on Tuesday night to make a plea to her son to turn himself in, but on Wednesday, he was still out there.

CBS 2's Mai Martinez reports that Patricia Wilson believes the man seen in surveillance video released by Chicago Police from that CTA bus is her son. She is pleading with him to come forward and talk to police about what happened that night before he ends up dead himself.

"If they catch him and they feel he's armed or dangerous, they going to shoot first and ask questions later," Bishop Dixon said.

Wilson's worst fear is that her son will die before he's able to tell Chicago Police what happened aboard a CTA bus Sunday night around 10 p.m.

Police say the man stepped off the bus at the busy three-way intersection of 71st Street, Cottage Grove Avenue, and South Chicago Avenue, then turned, fled and shot into the bus, killing Salter, a senior at Percy L. Julian High School.

A family member who was on the bus with the victim told the Chicago Tribune the shooting happened after one man accidentally brushed the hand of another man on the bus. That brief contact led to an argument followed by the shooting that left Salter dead. Chicago Police say Salter was not the intended target.

CTA surveillance video is blurry but police believe his clothes may be enough to give the suspect away. His jacket is visible, splattered with the number nine in several colors.

Wilson says she doesn't know if her son is the man who shot Salter, but she feels police think he is.

"They said it was a confrontation between two gentlemen, but he's the only one they're showing," Wilson said.

She says she's taken her plea public in the hopes that her son will see it or hear about it and come forward to make things right.

"If he did it then he has to pay the price, but if he didn't, God knows I want my child to be safe and come home," Wilson said. "I don't know what else to say."

Wilson has the support of her family and her church.

"As much as she would hate to see her child in jail, she would rather see him in jail than me doing a eulogy here," Bishop Dixon said.

A memorial fund has been set up in Salter' name. Donations are being taken at any Washington Mutual Bank branch to pay for funeral and burial expenses.

CBS 2's Joanie Lum, Mai Martinez, Vince Gerasole and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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