On Thursday September 24, 2009, sixteen-year-old Derrion Albert was brutally beaten to death with wooden boards by a few of his peers at Fenger High School in Chicago, Illinois. Silvanus Shannon, age 19, Eric Carson, age 16, and Eugene Riley, age 18, were all charged as adults on the account of first degree murder. It is unclear whether Derrion was merely an innocent bystander that happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, or that he was being punished for refusing to join a local gang.

The disturbing murder of this innocent child was caught on tape by a student that also attended Derrion’s high school but preferred not to be identified, fearing retaliation. A resident of the neighborhood comments, "They’re killing our children, our hope for the future. When will it stop?" Derrion Albert was always well-behaved, as well as an honor student. His grandfather, Joseph Walker, told WLS-TV that his grandson was "a good kid who didn’t deserve to die."