Chicago Area Local News

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A teenage boy has been denied bond in the murder of a University of Chicago graduate student who was less than a month away from receiving his doctorate degree in chemistry. Police believe the teen is responsible for several crimes in that area, and more arrests are expected.

Eric Walker, 16, is charged as an adult with one count each of first-degree murder, attempted robbery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm and one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm in the shooting death of Amadou Cisse, 29, according to Chicago Police Deputy Supt. Hiram Grau.

Police said the suspects were after money, and when they couldn't get any from Cisse they allegedly shot him in the chest in the early morning Nov. 19 near his off-campus apartment in the Woodlawn neighborhood near 61st Street and Ellis Avenue.

Police identified several suspects. The said Walker admitted in a videotaped confession that he drove the getaway car in the murder of Cisse.

"In his video statement, the defendant knew his co-offender was armed with a .22-calibre revolver," assistant state's attorney Maria McCarthy said.

Police found the gun a block away. Witnesses described the vehicle seen fleeing, Grau said. Late last week, police found a car in the Beverly neighborhood that matched the getaway vehicle. It had been captured on surveillance tape, and police worked to lift fingerprints from it.

A police detective followed the route taken by the vehicle that fled the scene. It was spotted both on a U. of C. security camera near the university hospitals, and by a Chicago Police camera at 63rd Street and Stony Island Avenue, Grau said.

"Without this vehicle description, detectives would not have been able to clear this homicide as quickly," Grau said.

Walker has also been charged with three counts of armed robbery with a firearm. These charges were connected to two incidents on or near campus within an hour of the time Cisse was killed. In one case, someone fired a shot at a male U. of C. employee about two blocks from the murder scene, in the other case, two female students were robbed closer to the main quadrangle of the campus. Law enforcement officials say that two or possibly three others were involved in the crime spree.

"I'm greatly relieved because in the community, in some parts of the community, there was suspicion that this could happen again," said U. of C. Police Chief Rudy Nimocks.

Cisse's murder raised security concerns on campus. At a security forum Wednesday night, Nimocks and other U. of C. officials talked about changes they've made to keep students safe, which include more officers, patrols and busses.

"We will continue to keep the additional resources out there that we have out there now. They're not going to be withdrawn simply because these young men were arrested," Nimocks said.

Students who live near the crime scene had been on edge until hearing about the arrest.

"Relief. It's scary to think you're in danger, so are your fellow classmates," student Kendra Grimmett said.

In response to the crime, university officials have taken extra security precautions. First, the university police have increased patrols on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood. They have dispatched 50 percent more U. of C. police patrols between 4 p.m. and midnight, and have doubled the number of patrols after midnight. More bicycle patrols have also been added, according to a letter to the university community from President Robert Zimmer.

The university has also set up a police substation at 61st and Drexel Avenue, which will be manned 24 hours a day. It opened Wednesday, and will remain in operation until May, when a new U. of C. Police Headquarters opens on the site, U. of C. Vice President of Community and Government Affairs Henry Webber.

Two new vans have also been added to the SafeRide late night van service, which transports students for free, the letter said. Hours for the van have expanded, and efforts are underway to start it at dusk.

"Campus security is a top priority for the University of Chicago," Webber said. "We are delighted with the cooperation we have received from the city of Chicago Police and the cooperation that we see every day to make a safe environment for students, faculty, staff and the members of our community."

Students are noticing the changes. "I feel like the police presence is stronger. There's only so much they can do," student Ron Belcher said.

Students are pleased at the security changes, but some say security can't replace the importance of building relationships with people off campus, too.

"It's not us versus the community," said Ben Esparza, chair of the U. of C. College Council. "It's us trying to reach out and also be a part of the community, and there's things that go along with that."

The Woodlawn neighborhood where the homicide happened has been undergoing redevelopment and has seen an influx of students and others affiliated with the university over the past several years. The site of Cisse's murder was less than a block from the Burton-Judson undergraduate dormitory, and a short walk from the university's Law School and Social Service Administration school.

The charges against the teen came as the mother of the slain student said her family will not travel from Dakar, Senegal to America to pick up the doctoral degree that will be awarded to her son posthumously.

"No, no, no, absolutely no. I will not come," said Seynabou Cisse mother of the chemistry student who came to Chicago in 2001 and had planned to return to his West African nation.

"I cannot count the ways in which this tragedy has affected my family," the pediatric nurse and widowed mother of three told the Chicago Sun-Times in a telephone interview Tuesday. "It has hit my family very hard. I am not coming to America. I just can't."

The University of Chicago invited the family to send a member to accept the degree on Dec. 7, offering to pay the expenses, according to Cisse's 27-year-old brother, Alioune, a computer engineer.

Alioune Cisse said when he and members of his family talked to his brother, he always described Chicago as a nice place.

"So none of us could really expect that something like this could happen," he said. "We didn't know Chicago was such a violent place."

Cisse earlier this month successfully defended his dissertation, a study of how molecules diffuse and migrate through polymers.

"I had spoken with my brother just the Saturday before, and we were laughing and joking," said his sister Aissatou, 26, an accountant. "I couldn't have imagined that was the last time I would ever talk to my brother."

Cisse's father, a military officer, was killed in Gambia.

"Our father died outside of the country. Now Amadou. So my mother is in shock," Alioune said. "My mother was asking me this afternoon if the death penalty exists in Chicago. That's how angry we are here."

His brother's body, shipped home by the U. of C., arrived in Dakar on Friday, and the Muslim family held a small burial service, Alioune said.

Webber said the tragedy of Cisse's death overshadowed all else.

"We continue to be enormously saddened by Amadou Cisse's death," Webber said. "He was an extraordinary young scientist and an extraordinary young person who would have contributed enormously to this world… all of our lives are poorer because of his death. This is also a moment, however, of a second tragedy, and that's that a 16-year-old old is being charged with this crime, and that too is a tragedy for our city."

A memorial service will be held for Cisse Friday at 3 p.m. at Bond Chapel, at 1050 E. 59th St. on the U. of C. campus. 

 
CBS 2's Joanie Lum, Dana Kozlov, Kristyn Hartman, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.

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