More than 120 people gathered to protest the death of 15-year-old Steven Rosenthal, who police say fatally shot himself on the back stairwell of his West Side home after he was briefly chased by officers who allegedly saw him holding a handgun. 
 
 Shouting “No justice, no peace,�? or “Let us see Steve,�? the crowd gathered Sunday at Johnson School of Excellence at 1420 S. Albany Ave. and marched to Mount Sinai Hospital a few blocks away, shutting down both lanes of Ogden Avenue at times. 
 
 A brief altercation ensued outside the hospital’s emergency room when a large group chanting “Let us see Steve�? tried to force their way into the building and scuffled briefly with security officers blocking the doorway. A few people in the crowd wondered why the protesters went to the hospital rather than the Cook County medical examiner’s office, where the teen’s body was taken for an autopsy. 
 
 The protest later moved west down Ogden and continued along 16th Street as Chicago police officers in squad cars closed down streets to allow the marchers to pass unhindered by traffic. 
 
 Rosenthal died Friday evening at his home in the 1500 block of South Keeler Avenue in the Lawndale neighborhood, and the medical examiner’s office ruled his death a suicide from a gunshot wound to the head. 
 
 Police said the teen fled when officers tried to question him after spotting him with a weapon just before 7 p.m. Friday. A short time afterward, Rosenthal shot himself in the head, police said. 
 
 READ MORE: Dozens gather at scene of 15-year-old's suicide following police chase: 'He had a promising future' » 
 
 But Rosenthal’s family vehemently denies the teen would have ever shot himself and laid the blame on the officers, who they said they believe shot him based on what individuals who claim to have witnessed the incident have said. 
 
 “Steven was on the stairwell of his grandmother’s house on the West Side of Chicago when police officers stormed up the stairwell chasing,�? the family’s attorney, Andrew Stroth, said at a news conference prior to the march Sunday. “Within moments, these officers, without cause or provocation, shot and killed 15-year old Steven. … Based on several eyewitness accounts, these officers ended the hopes and the dreams of a talented young man with a bright future.�? 
 
 Rosenthal’s aunt, the teen’s legal guardian, sobbed as she made a public plea to Mayor Rahm Emanuel to order the release of any body camera recordings of the shooting. 
 
 “My 15-year old nephew Steven was shot and killed by the Chicago Police Department,�? Terinica Thomas-Level, 28, said, weeping and shaking visibly as she stood before the news media. “I need the attention of Mayor Emanuel. I need to see evidence. Body cams. They need to release the video. My nephew would never commit suicide ever. … If he (Emanuel) even had the smallest compassion for our family, he’d get those videotapes released.�? 
 
 On Sunday, police spokesman Michael Carroll said that the shooting remains under investigation and that the department “has not come to a point where the decision has been made to release the body cam video.�? 
 
 Carroll said he was not aware of whether any formal complaint had been lodged by the family alleging police misconduct in the death of Rosenthal. 
 
 Stroth said that he and the family are demanding a “full, independent and transparent�? investigation into Rosenthal’s death. So far, the family has not been able to view his remains, he said. 
 
 “The medical examiner has not released Steven’s body,�? Stroth said at the news conference. “The family is demanding to see the body, the family is demanding to see the evidence, the family is demanding to see the supposed, alleged weapon that was on the scene. The family deserves justice, and that’s what the family is fighting for.�? 
 
 mwalberg@chicagotribune.com 
 
 Twitter @mattwalberg1 ||||| Family rejects suicide in Crane basketball player’s death; CPD says no cop fired 
 
 Terinica Thomas, Steve Rosenthal's aunt, weeps as family and friends march in response to the death of Steve Rosenthal on August 19, 2018. | Colin Boyle/Sun-Times 
 
 Chicago police say there is no evidence that any officer fired a weapon during the Friday night encounter that ended with the death of a 15-year-old Crane High School basketball player. 
 
 But in the latest sign of distrust between the community and the Chicago Police Department, Steven Rosenthal’s family marched with activists through North Lawndale on Sunday, rejecting the conclusion that Rosenthal committed suicide. 
 
 “My nephew would never commit suicide, ever,” Terinica Thomas, the boy’s aunt and legal guardian, declared Sunday. 
 
 Thomas made her comment during a press conference outside Johnson School of Excellence, where her family’s lawyer, Andrew Stroth, called for an independent investigation into Rosenthal’s death. He insisted that eyewitnesses saw Rosenthal’s death play out differently, but he did not name them or say how many there are. 
 
 “The family is demanding to see the evidence,” Stroth said. 
 
 Stroth called on authorities to release footage of Rosenthal’s death. But CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said no footage had been found Sunday that depicts the moment Rosenthal was shot. He said it’s unclear if state law would allow the public release of the existing footage, given how Rosenthal died. 
 
 Rosenthal died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head — not in a use-of-force situation — according to official accounts. The Cook County medical examiner’s office ruled Rosenthal’s death a suicide following an autopsy Saturday. 
 
 Chicago police said officers spotted Rosenthal with a gun and tried to stop him about 6:55 p.m. Friday near his home in the 1500 block of South Keeler. Rosenthal ran away, and then he “tragically used the weapon on himself,” Guglielmi tweeted. 
 
 Rosenthal died a half-hour later at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the medical examiner’s office. 
 
 Alonzo Crowder, head coach of boys basketball at Crane Medical Prep High School, said Rosenthal’s mother died of an illness shortly after the season ended in March. Rosenthal’s father died when he was 6. 
 
 Still, neighbors and friends say the authorities’ account of Rosenthal shooting himself while running from police was out of character. 
 
 Guglielmi said there is no video or ballistic evidence that suggests an officer fired a gun during the encounter with Rosenthal. He also said no officer reported opening fire, as is required by law and department policy. 
 
 Guglielmi called Rosenthal’s death “an absolute tragedy.” Asked about the disbelief in the community, he said “suicide is an immensely difficult and painful thing to deal with” and he said, “our deepest condolences go out to this family.” 
 
 But Thomas, Stroth and others wanted answers Sunday instead, marching from the school at Douglas and Albany to Mount Sinai before walking to CPD’s 10th district headquarters on Ogden. 
 
 Outside the police station, the group first formed a circle on Ogden but eventually converged as they directed their ire toward the few officers standing outside. 
 
 They chanted “justice for Steve.” They promised to return every night for 30 days. 
 
 And, they insisted, “We want the tape!” 
 
 Contributing: Rachel Hinton, Michael O’Brien ||||| Karen Winters knows how easily boys are drawn to a life of violence in the Homan Square neighborhood. 
 
 But she still can't understand how her 16-year-old nephew ended up shot to death after allegedly threatening a Chicago police officer with a gun during a brief foot chase Monday night. 
 
 "Once again, we're looking at environment, this community, how some of these young boys are just plagued with certain influences," Winters said Tuesday as relatives consoled the teen's mother. "But not to this extent, by no means." 
 
 Police said Pierre Loury was shot as he fled on foot from a car that officers had pulled over because it matched the description of a vehicle used in an earlier shooting. 
 
 An autopsy showed the teen suffered a gunshot wound to the chest. 
 
 Citing a preliminary investigation, First Deputy Superintendent John Escalante said the lone officer who chased the teen opened fire after the teen turned and pointed a gun at him. A semi-automatic weapon was recovered at the scene, Escalante said. 
 
 It marked the fifth police-involved shooting so far this year and the third fatal one. 
 
 A woman who said she witnessed the shooting told the Tribune the teen was shot as he was scaling a fence. 
 
 "They shot him in the air," she said. "His pants leg got caught on the fence and he hit the ground. If he hadn't gotten shot, he would have cleared the fence." 
 
 The woman spoke on condition of anonymity, saying she feared backlash from police. She said she had denied to police that night that she had seen anything. 
 
 A law enforcement source confirmed that before he was shot, Loury was trying to hop a fence and that his clothing had become entangled in the fence. 
 
 The following audio was obtained from police scanner traffic the night that 16-year-old Pierre L. Loury was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer on April 11, 2016. (Chicago Tribune) The following audio was obtained from police scanner traffic the night that 16-year-old Pierre L. Loury was fatally shot by a Chicago police officer on April 11, 2016. (Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 Police said Harrison District officers on routine patrol attempted to stop the car containing Loury about 7:40 p.m. Monday in the 3400 block of West Grenshaw Street because it matched the description of a vehicle from an earlier shooting. 
 
 Chicago police scanner traffic archived on Broadcastify.com suggested the car had been involved in a shooting about a half-hour earlier a few miles away in the Little Village neighborhood. But on Tuesday, law enforcement sources raised doubts of a connection to that homicide but still believed the car containing Loury was involved in another shooting earlier that night that may or may not have resulted in injuries. 
 
 The driver of that car — believed to be female, according to the scanner traffic — had gotten away after officers pursued Loury on foot and is still wanted by police, Escalante said. 
 
 Escalante said Loury had "prior contact" with police and that police considered him a documented gang member. 
 
 He also said the officer involved in the shooting would be placed on paid desk duty for at least 30 days — a new department policy after an officer fatally shot a college student wielding a baseball bat on the day after Christmas and accidentally shot and killed a 55-year-old neighbor as well, according to police. 
 
 On Monday, the woman who said she witnessed the shooting heard police sirens and noise about 7:40 p.m. as she began to prepare dinner. She said she then heard someone yell "we got a jumper, we got a jumper," so she peered out a window. 
 
 She said she saw a young boy whom she recognized from the neighborhood trying to jump over a fence. She said she did not see a gun in his hand, but it was dark. 
 
 A video shot by someone in the neighborhood and posted on Facebook showed detectives approach the boy from the other side of the fence, then gather around the body, shining flashlights across the yard. 
 
 The woman who said she witnessed the shooting told the Tribune she saw a paramedic check the boy's pulse and heard him say he was still alive. 
 
 Loury was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead at 8:27 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. 
 
 On Tuesday, Loury's family and friends gathered at the two-flat apartment building in East Garfield Park where his mother lives. 
 
 Loury's mother, Tambrasha Hudson, her son's first name tattooed in cursive on her neck, cried loudly on the front porch, tears streaming down her face, as relatives tried to console her. 
 
 "Everything they said on the news is not the truth," Hudson said, her voice choked with emotion. "It is not the truth. It's not the truth. 
 
 "It's sad!" she said repeatedly. "My baby was 16, not 30. My baby was 16! Sixteen!" 
 
 Pierre's grandmother, Catherine Hudson, said she was sleeping when her daughter called to tell her of the shooting by police. The grandmother said she was fearing the worst "but praying for the better." 
 
 A teen boy who police said fled a car that was believed to be tied to an earlier shooting died in a confrontation with officers April 11, 2016, in the 3400 block of West Grenshaw Street in the Homan Square neighborhood. 
 
 The family had been mentioned in a 2000 Tribune story about the high rate of truancy at Rezin Orr High School. His mother, then an 18-year-old junior at the West Side high school, said she missed school for a number of days to care for her then-infant son. 
 
 "It's not like I'm just out hanging in the streets," she told members of Orr's truancy crew who had stopped by her home at the time. "My baby needs me at home. That's where I'm going to be, school or not." 
 
 His family said Loury was the oldest of five children, an aspiring rapper who attended Community Christian Alternative Academy in the West Side's Lawndale neighborhood. 
 
 "He's a typical Chicago teen male, no different than any other young man living in this city, facing some of the same challenges and trials and tribulations," Winters said in the vestibule of the two-flat. 
 
 Winters said she found reports of her nephew carrying a gun hard to believe and described his past brushes with the law as "small, minor incidents." 
 
 On Loury's Facebook page, friends called him by his nickname, "Polo." Photos of what appeared to be drugs and guns were mixed with occasional inspirational posts about bettering himself. 
 
 He frequently posted photos of his outfit of the day as well as new shoes, watches and distressed painted jeans. He also often referred to the Reese Money Gang or RMG, letters tattooed on his neck. 
 
 Some videos posted late last month showed Loury hanging out with friends, smoking and counting what appeared to be stacks of money. Loury also talked about having bigger plans for himself, writing, "Thinkin of A Master Plan." 
 
 Bionca Johnson, who lives on the 3400 block of Grenshaw Street, said Loury had brought her groceries home for her before. Many people in the neighborhood have a "kill or be killed" mentality, she said.
– A 15-year-old Chicago teen was shot to death last week, but the police and his family have very different accounts of what happened. Police say they spotted Steven Rosenthal with a gun Friday evening and gave chase on foot, reports the Chicago Tribune. During the chase, the teen used the gun to shoot himself in the head, police say. However, Rosenthal's family say he would never kill himself and accuse police of shooting him. "My nephew would never commit suicide, ever," says Terinica Thomas, his legal guardian, per the Chicago Sun-Times. The family is demanding that police turn over bodycam footage in the case, but a department spokesman says no decision has been made about that yet. "Steven was on the stairwell of his grandmother's house on the West Side of Chicago when police officers stormed up the stairwell chasing," family attorney Andrew Stroth said Sunday, prior to a march in the teen's name, per the Tribune. "Within moments, these officers, without cause or provocation, shot and killed 15-year old Steven," he said, citing eyewitness accounts. The Cook County medical examiner, however, has ruled the death a suicide, and police insist that no officers opened fire. Rosenthal played basketball at Crane Medical Prep High School. His coach there tells the Sun-Times the teen's mother died earlier this year and his father died when he was 6.