Arizona teen Sean Chinn shot dead after pals throw stone at car, mum laments 'a rock was worth my baby's life'
PHOENIX, ARIZONA: A 16-year-old boy was shot dead after his friend allegedly threw a stone at a passing car. His heartbroken mother bemoaned, saying “a rock was worth my baby’s life."
Sean Chinn Jr was meeting friends after work outside a gas station in Phoenix on the night of May 26, when he was shot to death, The Sun reported.
Sean's family said one of his teen pals hurled a stone at a car as it drove by, before the vehicle turned around and a man in the back seat opened fire on the group. The car fled the scene after fatally injuring Sean and wounding two of his friends.
"He shot at all of them and killed my baby right here over a f***ing rock – a rock, a rock," distraught mother Tifini Monegan told Fox 10. “A rock was worth my baby’s life, a rock.”
According to her, Sean's last words were, “Where is my mom? Where is my mom?” The heartbroken mother lamented how she wasn't able to see her child before his death even at the hospital due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions.
The family had moved to Phoenix from Chicago just a year ago so they could escape the city's rampant gun violence, Tifini said. But as fate would have it, Sean was shot dead in the place he was meant to start a new life.
“My son didn’t do nothing to nobody. He’s his own kid, he was just doing good," devastated father Sean Chinn Sr told the outlet. “He’s an apple in his mother’s eye, he loved his brothers, he loved me.”
Meanwhile, the teenager's uncle also insisted he had done nothing wrong. “He wasn’t doing anything wrong," Lathan Monegan said. "These were tough guys who wanted to be tough and they took out a 16-year-old boy.”
Law enforcement is still on the hunt for the vehicle and the gunman, but is yet to make arrests. They have urged witnesses to come forward and revealed the killer was riding in a silver sedan with two other people.
Speaking to 12News while holding a picture of Sean, mother Tifini remembered her son as "a lovely little boy." She remembered how he was always "smiling and laughing with a bag of Hot Takis and a skateboard.”
“He cracks the funniest jokes and makes everybody laugh and smile,” she told the outlet.
Money was tight for Tifini and her children considering she is a single parent. But Sean rose to the occasion. “Sean chose to work versus going to school,” the proud mother explained. “Because me and his brothers were fresh here and money was running low to keep a hotel and we needed to get into a house. So, Sean decided to take a hiatus from school and work full-time."
The family had no job lined up or living situation arranged when they first arrived in Arizona, and so Sean took up a job at a call center to contribute to his family and get them better housing. According to Tifini, Sean was also contributing to the family in an emotional way.
“He is usually my rock,” Tifini told the outlet. “So, in a situation like this, he would be the person I would lean on."
The family is now trying to come up with the money needed to pay for his funeral. They have set up a GoFundMe page as well as a Facebook Fundraiser.
Anyone interested can also donate directly to the mortuary by calling A.L. Moore-Grimshaw Mortuaries at 602-272-5639. The account name is “Monegan” and the account number is 039940007102.