SO SAD: Teen Dies Trying To Protect His Twin Brother (Pictures)

A weekend armed robbery claimed the life of a 15-year-old Chicago teen who was walking to his high school to play basketball with his twin brother.

Demario and Demarcio Bailey were walking to an Englewood High School basketball game when four robbers ambushed the 15-year-old twins on a street corner Saturday afternoon.

“Get off my brother,” Demario cried out as the young men shook up their pockets and demanded their jackets, according to the Chicago Tribune. As the Bailey boys struggled with the attackers, one suspect pulled out a gun and fired.

Three days shy of their 16th birthday, one gunshot wound to the chest killed Demario. The shot sent the accomplices and Demarcio running. He looked back only to see his brother’s body lying face down under a viaduct.

“He didn’t see anybody other than Demario on the ground,” his grandmother, Bernice Fitzpatrick, 62, told the Tribune, describing them both as honorable boys. “They were raised to stick together.”

Chicago cops have taken several suspects into custody including a 17-year-old now charged with murder, robbery and attempted robbery with a firearm. The shooting happened just after their family gave the teen boys permission to be out on their own together more often. The boy’s death sparked a dramatic statement from Johnson College Prep, where Demaro attended school, which called for martial law to handle the tragic shooting.

“I know I speak for every educator who continuously deals with this type of tragedy in saying we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. The apologies are not enough, and after all the fanfare is over, someone still has to put their baby in the ground,” Principal Garland Thomas-McDavid wrote.

“I believe I speak for every mother who lives on the South Side of this city in saying we don’t mind if it takes (martial) law to get this in order. Demario did not deserve to die three days from his 16th birthday.” The Bailey’s mother collapsed at the scene after Demario’s body was taken away.

According to family members, she had sheltered the boys for most of their lives, driving them to most places but as their 16th birthday approached she lifted began to allow them more freedom. Demario would have been 16th on Tuesday.