Beating victim 'was just getting started with his life'

Sun-Times:

Shaun Bowens told his mother he would bring up his grades after she got angry with him for not doing well in school.

The arrival of his report card on Wednesday shows that the 17-year-old kept his promise.

But the good news came too late. Bowens died Tuesday after being beaten in a weekend street brawl.

The Gage Park High School student was with friends at 75th and Michigan Sunday night when a fight broke out with another group, police said.

Detectives are not sure what sparked the fight, but it was not gang-related, they said.

Bowens was beaten with a brick and also with hands and feet, police said.

"It was just a street fight," said his mother, Theresa Bowens. "It went farther than it needed to."

The Trib said that this street fight took place about a mile away from the shooting that killed Kiyanna Salter on the 71 bus. I can't believe these two events occurred at about the same time:

Shaun Bowens, who turned 17 on Oct. 1, was headed with his cousin and four friends to a friend's home Sunday night near 75th Street and Michigan Avenue, after a basketball game, his family said. Robert Bowens said his son was hit on the head from behind after running from a fight that started as part of an ongoing feud between two other males that may have stemmed from a basketball game.

"It spilled over to this dumbness, where we had this viciousness," said Bowens, who said he had been told more than 10 males ganged up on his son after he was struck with the brick. "They had bricks and bottles—most of the blows went to his head. These guys all went to school together."

Police say Bowens was involved in a quarrel that turned into a fight at around 7:50 p.m. in the 0-100 block of East 75th Street. Detectives are conducting a death investigation, said Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti, a police spokeswoman.

Bowens was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:31 p.m. Tuesday, according to the medical examiner's office. His death has not been labeled a homicide.

I really wonder what caused this.