A 20-year-old Chicago man has been sentenced to six years in prison after prosecutors said he invited three children between the ages of 12 and 14 into his Calumet Heights home, let them handle loaded firearms, and gave them alcohol and marijuana — a night that ended with one of the guns firing a bullet that killed 12-year-old Dalilah Batey.
Tyler Wright pleaded guilty to child endangerment causing death and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to CWB Chicago. Judge Charles Burns sentenced Wright to five years for child endangerment and one additional year for the weapons charge, with the two terms to run consecutively for a total of six years.
The shooting happened on February 9, 2025, in a home on the 9200 block of South Harper Avenue that Wright shared with the guns. Prosecutors said Wright let the children see two firearms in his bedroom, and the group ended up handling the weapons together — one child racked the slide of one gun, another pulled the magazine from it, and the firearm was passed from child to child before a 14-year-old boy was handling it when it fired. One of the two guns was equipped with an extended magazine and a laser sight.
A Child Killed in a Bedroom
The bullet struck Dalilah Batey above her right eye. Chicago police officers found her on the bedroom floor next to a shell casing, and laboratory testing later determined, according to prosecutors, that the recovered gun that fired was the one that killed her. Three additional children had joined the group at the home that day, per the CWB Chicago report, before the shooting occurred.
According to CBS News, Dalilah was a 12-year-old seventh-grade honor student who was rushed to Comer Children's Hospital, where she died. Her family described her, as reported by ABC7 Chicago, as a bright student who had simply been visiting friends when the shooting occurred.
Vacant Building, Overlooked for Years
City building records reviewed after the shooting showed the Harper Avenue residence had sat vacant for more than a decade, with its owners cited multiple times for failing to register or maintain the structure safely, per CBS News. City inspectors began looking into the vacant building only after the fatal shooting drew attention to it.
Police recovered two firearms from Wright's backyard, and officers separately alleged finding a loaded handgun in his waistband during a traffic stop, per the same account. Wright was on electronic monitoring when the February shooting occurred, having been placed on house arrest while awaiting trial in a separate gun case, according to CWB Chicago's reporting.
A Second Defendant Shielded by Juvenile Law
Less than two hours after the shooting, Chicago police arrested a 14-year-old boy and charged him with felony involuntary manslaughter before releasing him to his parents on electronic monitoring, according to CBS News. Prosecutors said the boy was already on electronic monitoring for an unspecified charge at the time Dalilah was killed. The outcome of his case remains unavailable, since juvenile court records are shielded from public review under Illinois law.
What Illinois Law Says About Endangerment and Guns
Wright's primary conviction stems from an enhanced version of Illinois' child endangerment statute. Under 720 ILCS 5/12C-5, endangering the life or health of a child that proximately causes the child's death is a Class 3 felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison, according to the Illinois General Assembly. Standard child endangerment is otherwise only a Class A misdemeanor unless a death results.
Wright's weapons charge, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, is typically prosecuted as a Class 4 felony carrying one to three years in prison under 720 ILCS 5/24-1.6, per the Civic Federation. Separately, updates to Illinois' Firearms Child Protection Act took effect January 1, 2026, requiring gun owners to store firearms in a locked container or attach an operable locking device whenever minors without FOID cards are likely to gain access, according to the Illinois State Police. Violations that lead to death or bodily harm can carry criminal fines and misdemeanor charges.
Electronic Monitoring Under Scrutiny
Both Wright and the 14-year-old co-defendant were on court-ordered electronic monitoring in separate cases when Dalilah was killed. The Office of the Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County released comprehensive electronic monitoring data in May 2026, after the court assumed full responsibility for the county's pretrial monitoring program in April 2025 following the Sheriff's exit from that role, according to the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The scale of gun-related monitoring cases has grown sharply in recent years. Individuals charged with aggravated gun possession accounted for 27% of the county's daily pretrial electronic monitoring population by late 2024, up from just 7% in 2016, according to Cook County Sheriff's Office statistics.
A Pattern Beyond One House
Nationally, research from Everytown for Gun Safety identified at least 2,070 unintentional shootings by children under 18 between 2015 and 2020, resulting in 765 deaths and 1,366 injuries. That data shows pediatric firearm fatalities rise sharply when guns are stored unlocked and accessible.
The Far South Side has seen its own string of youth-involved gun incidents in recent months. Hoodline reported in an earlier deadly Paxton Avenue shooting that Calumet Heights and nearby blocks saw repeated youth-involved gun incidents and non-fatal adolescent shootings earlier this year, a pattern that continued into summer when two teenagers were shot during a fight in the same neighborhood in late July.
