Prosecutors on Wednesday accused a 19-year-old of child endangerment in connection with 12-year-old Dalilah Batey’s shooting death Sunday.
Tyler Q. Wright, of Calumet Heights, faces one felony count of child endangerment. Prosecutors said in court filings that he had invited Dalilah and five other children under 14 to the home, where there was a ghost gun and a loaded, semiautomatic gun with an extended magazine and a laser sight attachment. A 14-year-old boy was allegedly seated on the bed and handling one of the guns when it went off, striking Dalilah in the face and killing her where she sat on the floor.
Authorities on Tuesday charged the boy with manslaughter.
Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Pekara also alleged that Wright and the children were drinking and smoking, and that Wright had given the children weed to roll.
Wright was previously on pretrial release for an August 2024 case in which he was accused of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Police had found him carrying a gun during a traffic stop, records show. Judge Antara Rivera on Wednesday ordered Wright detained, records show.
Court records list Wright’s residence as the same home where the shooting occurred, though the city filed a case against the property’s owners in 2021 declaring it “dangerous and unsafe.”
Records show the house’s owner has been cited 11 times since 2022 over failures to post the owner name and contact information, maintain the structure and keep a watch on the premises overnight, among other failures.
Wright is next set to appear in court Thursday morning before Judge Shauna Boliker, records show.
