A mugshot of 11-year-old gangster Robert Sandifer. It is the only known photo of Sandifer, who killed a 14-year-old schoolgirl while shooting at rival gangsters, prior to his own murder by two teenage fellow gangsters. His short and violent life got national attention (Chicago, 1994) [1024 x 763].
by lightiggy
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[Murder In Miniature](https://time.com/archive/6726011/crime-murder-in-miniature/)
[11-year-old ‘Yummy’ Sandifer was on the run for killing a teenage girl. Then he was killed by his own gang in a Chicago story that shocked the nation.](https://archive.is/EIFLg)
Robert avoided capture for three days. Gang members shuttled him between safe houses and abandoned buildings as police swooped down on the neighborhood, searching for the shooter, followed by a flock of reporters. Gang leaders felt the pressure. A gang researcher noted the irony.
>”He was like a trapped animal with everyone after him. He was the hunter, and then he was the prey.”
Had Robert been taken in alive, one can only speculate what would’ve happened. At age 11, he was considered old enough to know right from wrong, but too young to be tried as an adult. In the past, Robert had always been shown leniency due to his age. This time, things were different. The murder of 14-year-old [Shavon Dean](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30038339/shavon_l-dean) was a crime that would’ve been guaranteed to send Robert to juvenile detention for the rest of his childhood and likely until his 21st birthday. But given his home life, that would’ve been an improvement anyway.
Eventually, Robert decided to stop running and face what he had done.
Robert went to the house of a neighbor, Cassandra Cooper. She recognized Robert, who was visibly frightened, and called him over. Robert asked her to call his grandmother, one of few people whom he trusted to be with him when he turned himself into the police. He also asked her if they could say a prayer together. Cassandra went inside to make the call, but when she returned, he was gone.
Fearing that Robert would confess and implicate others, the gang had sent two teenage brothers, 14-year-old Derrick Hardaway and 16-year-old Cragg Hardaway, to silence him. The brothers approached Robert and promised to get him out of the city. They then drove him to a railroad underpass, a dark tunnel marbled with gang graffiti. The three got out and the Hardaway brothers told Robert to get on his knees before shooting him twice in the back of the head.
The tragedy largely focused on Robert, but the mother of Shavon Dean, the 14-year-old schoolgirl whom Robert murdered, wanted the public to know about her daughter. “All my baby wanted to do was go to school and become somebody,” Deborah Dean said. “She didn’t get that chance.” She said she took no satisfaction in the fate of Robert, whom she’d known and taken to church. She later said Robert’s death had only left her with unanswered questions. Overall, the city had widely varying reactions to Robert’s murder.
Some said Robert, who had committed over 20 felonies in his lifetime, but always received leniency due to his age, was a menace who got what he deserved. Others recalled Robert’s more childlike side. He was nicknamed “Yummy” for his love of sweets. “Everyone thinks he was a bad person, but he respected my mom, who’s got cancer,” said 12-year-old Kenyata Jones. “We’d bake cookies and brownies and rent movies like the old Little Rascals in black and white.” Others, such as Cook County public guardian Patrick Murphy, pointed to Robert’s extremely dysfunctional upbringing.
>”If ever there was a case where the kid’s future was predictable, it was this case. What you’ve got here is a kid who was made and turned into a sociopath by the time he was three years old.”
At his funeral, Robert’s body laid in a small coffin with a stuffed teddy bear beside him. The family had no photos of him other than his mugshot.
Patrick Murphy had it right. According to his Wikipedia article, his dad was in prison and his mom was a prostitute and addict.
“Before he was three years old, Sandifer was already known to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Physical examinations showed that Sandifer was alleged to have had cigarette burns on his arms and neck as well as linear bruising consistent with physical beatings.”
Chewed up and spit out by a world that never gave him a chance.
Reminds me of Kenard from The Wire
An 11 year old kid tried to mug me once.
Once.
I knew kids like him in therapeutic foster care, which was different than your regular foster care. The kids had more issues and grew up in the worst environments. A lot of them ended up in jail. One kid ran away with a hatchet, no idea what he was planning. Another got jealous of the natural born kid and ended up locking him in the trunk. One who left the program at 18 got arrested for killing a cop dog. An old foster brother got arrested, but took multiple cops to take him down, because he was on drugs.Some made it, I did, but definitely needed a lot of help and therapy to do so. Also, spent 17 months in a wilderness program. In the wilderness program, we had one kid, Little Mikey, was 11 when he got there.
This is so fucking sad.
He isn’t a gangster. He’s a little boy.
This sucks.
Black lives matter. This could have been prevented.