Anthony Smith’s hands pressed on his older brother’s neck as he lay bleeding on a South Shore street last September.
His then 17-year-old brother Antoine had just been shot multiple times. Anthony flagged down a motorist, and was able to stave off his brother’s bleeding until they reached the hospital. His brother was there for weeks, but he survived.
“He saved his life,” their older sister, Semaj Smith, told the Sun-Times. “Anthony got him to the hospital in time.”
A little over a year later on Tuesday night in Woodlawn, Anthony found himself on the other end. It was Anthony who lay on the ground with gunshot wounds as time slipped away.
Anthony, 15, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Now, his family is calling for the shooters to turn themselves in and are raising funds for Anthony’s funeral as well as other expenses, including moving to a new neighborhood.
“No one deserves to be going through this,” said Semaj Smith, 19, who also goes by “Jada.”
According to Chicago police, Anthony was standing in the 6600 block of South Champlain about 8:30 p.m. when someone opened fire, striking him more than a dozen times.
He was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:51 p.m., police said.
His sister said the siblings grew up in the area and were visiting their father that day. They were waiting for a rideshare to take them home about 2 miles farther south.
They were gathered outside when gunfire erupted, and chaos broke out. “I hear pop, pop, pop, pop, pop” and everyone started running, she said. They lost Anthony in the commotion. It was their father who found him on the ground on Champlain.
Anthony Smith, Semaj Smith and Antoine Smith in April 2023.
Provided
“They shot my baby, they shot my baby,” Semaj Smith heard her father exclaim. As police arrived to try and save her brother she offered them her own clothes to help stop his bleeding.
She remembered her brother as a “smart little boy” who loved to play basketball and was an aspiring rap artist. She thinks back fondly to the constant thump she’d hear from a ball hitting the miniature basketball hoop he installed in his room.
Their relationship was much closer than that of typical brothers and sisters. They grew up with their mother, but because of family issues, Semaj Smith says she was kicked out when she was 15.
She bounced from one friend’s house to another. Eventually she found a job at a Captain Hook’s restaurant to support herself. She rented an apartment from a cousin and also began selling hair products on social media.
Issues at home continued, and when Anthony was 12 and his older brother 15 they decided it would be better for them to live with their sister. Semaj Smith, then16, took them in and helped financially support them, including paying for anything Anthony needed for his basketball hopes
“It was hard,” she said.
She soon started earning decent money through her social media sales, which helped. Semaj Smith has nearly 100 thousand followers combined on her Instagram and Tik Tok accounts.
But her expenses have changed in the last year. She’s now mother to a 1-year-old girl. The online fundraiser she created is not only to help with her brother’s funeral but also for her new daughter and Antoine’s lingering medical needs.
She’ll also use the money to move farther away from the area, she said. “Where we’re at now, we don’t feel as much safe,” Semaj Smith said.
As for right now, she wants her brother’s killers to be arrested.
“I just hope they come forward,” she said.
Contributing: Sophie Sherry