Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Street violence cast a shadow over a huge school rally Tuesday at Soldier Field. Tens of thousands of students were bused in for the event to push for more funding for education.

Down on the grass at Soldier Field, there was hip hop music and the national anthem and up in the stands, more than 30,000 Chicago public school students cheered on calls for more state funding for schools.

Mayor Richard M. Daley called it "The largest civics class in the history of Chicago or the world."

But the cheering stopped when the focus turned to the death and danger many of these young people face in their daily lives, including a CPS student who was killed just last night.

Montano was standing with a friend when he was shot dead at 9:45 p.m. Monday. A witness said someone came out from nowhere on the street at 2751 N. Monticello Ave., fired shots, and jumped into a waiting car.

Montano, a sophomore at Kelvyn Park High School, was shot in the back, and the other young man was shot in the chest and the leg, police said. The surviving victim was listed in critical condition.

Montano had grown up in the Logan Square neighborhood, but recently moved away. He was back visiting a childhood friend, according to his family.

His mother, Carmella Montano, sobbed on the shoulder of a relative Tuesday morning. Ignacio Montano was her youngest son.

His friend, Kathy Bailon, called 911 and stayed with Montano after the shooting, and stayed at the hospital overnight.

"When he hit the corner, he heard gunshots," Bailon said. "Him and his friend were running, and they fell on the floor. And the other friend kept running straight, and Ignacio turned toward my side, and he was running, and I was screaming out his name."

Police believe the shooter is a man between the ages of 18 and 20, according to News Affairs officers, who said the incident may be gang-related.

Bailon never saw the gunman or the car in which he reportedly escaped.

The students at Soldier Field on Tuesday joined in a pledge led by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, saying, "I accept my responsibility to attend school; stop the guns, stop the drugs, stop the violence. Save the children."

At one point students brought more than twenty empty chairs onto the field. Each one was inscribed with the name of a student who died of gun violence during the past school year. The faces of those young people with the chairs seemed haunted.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan said, "What I want your viewers to do is really understand how much our students have to live in fear every day, how devastating that is, what a psychological toll that takes."

The mayor also had a message for those tens of thousands of kids. "Talk to your family and church leaders. Tell them to get involved, to walk down the block, to interfere with young people who are destroying your family and your community," Daley said.

There was no chair on the field to symbolize the death of 16-year-old Ignacio Montano. He was killed only last night, and there was no time to prepare one.

At Kelvyn Park High School, 4343 W. Wrightwood Ave., fellow classmates were taking final exams on Tuesday.

"It makes me feel bad, because kids are dying every day, you know?" said classmate Ricardo Matos. "You wake up tomorrow, and I probably won't even be here."

Police have not released a description of the car or the suspect, except that he is a male between 18 and 20. Detectives believe the shooting may be gang-related.

The other victim was critically wounded, but is expected to recover, authorities said.

CBS 2's Joanie Lum and Mike Parker and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.

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

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