Boy, 14, charged with murder in shooting of Indian grad student

CHICAGO — A 14-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old Indian student during a robbery in a south side parking lot six weeks ago, police said Tuesday.

The incident happened January 22, 2023, on the 8400 block of South Holland Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood on the city's south side.

Three grad students from India, all three new to Chicago and who were new roommates, took a bus to the local Wal-Mart that Sunday evening to pick up a Wi-Fi router for their apartment. Around 7:00 p.m., the trio were walking through the parking lot when a stolen Kia Forte pulled up and two masked people jumped out and demanded the Indian student's property.

As the three students tried to hand over the $6 total cash they had on them, one of the robbers opened fire, striking two of the roommates.

Devasish Nandepu, 23, died hours later at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn from a gunshot to the back. Nandepu was attending Governors State University and studying computer science. He had only been in the city for two weeks when he was shot and killed.

Police said on Tuesday they've arrested a 14-year-old boy on the 10700 block of South Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in connection with the robbery and shooting. According to witnesses at the time, there were five offenders, all estimated to be high school age.

The 14-year-old is charged with one count of murder and one count of armed robbery but, since he is a juvenile, he will not be identified.

Nandepu's 22-year-old roommate, who was studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was also shot in the chest but recovered from his injuries and has returned to India. The third roommate escaped physically unharmed but, after holding his dying friend and roommate in his arms, he remains traumatized by the incident and intends to leave Chicago.

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