Person in custody in killing of 7-year-old Jai’Mani Amir Rivera, police say

Jai'Mani Amir Rivera was shot about 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard on the Near West Side.

A person was taken into police custody Thursday in connection to the fatal shooting of 7-year-old Jai’Mani Amir Rivera on the city’s Near West Side, according to Chicago police.

Additional details weren’t available Thursday evening, and Cook County court records showed no charges were yet filed in the case.

Jai’mani was shot about 3 p.m. Tuesday in the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard as he walked out of his family’s apartment to visit a next-door neighbor, Chicago police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters shortly after the shooting.

Responding Chicago Police Department officers applied pressure to the boy’s chest and took him in a police vehicle to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, officials said. An autopsy found Jai’Mani was shot in the torso, and the Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled the boy’s death a homicide. A police source said he was shot with a rifle round.

A vigil was held for Jai’Mani Wednesday in the Oakley Square apartment complex where the shooting occurred.

Vanessa Rivera, Jai’Mani’s aunt, remembered her nephew as an outgoing kid who had been looking forward to starting football.

“We didn’t lose a gang member on the streets, we lost a 7-year-old kid,” Rivera said. “The person that took my nephew’s life is going to pay for that.”

Jai’Mani was shot just a few blocks east of where 5-year-old Reign Ware was killed less than a month ago.