Two would-be robbers who were fatally
shot at a liquor store in the Gresham
neighborhood Saturday night have been
identified as a 15-year-old boy and a 17-
year-old boy, authorities said.
Keshawn Marzette, 15, of the 8300 block
of South Throop Street, and William
Larson, 17, of the same address, were
pronounced dead on the scene,
according to the Cook County medical
examiner’s office.
Autopsies Sunday determined both died
of multiple gunshot wounds and their
deaths were classified as homicides, the
office said.
The two were shot to death by a store
employee about 8:30 p.m. when they
tried to rob Z&S Food & Liquor in the
1300 block of West 87th Street, sources
said.
Citing preliminary information,
authorities said two people walked into
the store, and one of them hopped over
the counter.
That person hit the clerk standing
behind the counter, while the other
remained in front of the counter,
authorities said.
Meanwhile, a relative of the store owner
heard a commotion upstairs and saw the
robbery suspects from a stairwell,
authorities said.
He pulled out a gun and opened fire
on the two, killing them, authorities said.
At least one of them was armed with a
gun.
Family members at the scene identified
one of the suspects as Larson, 17.
Investigators were trying to determine if
the teens had robbed at least two other
stores in the area not long before trying
to rob the liquor store.
Bruce Jones said he was sitting in a van
across the street while his nephews
bought drinks inside the store. He said
he heard shots and ran into the store,
where he saw both robbers lying on the
floor “bleeding out.”
“Greed and being thirsty, that’s what
gets you killed,” Jones said. “You just
can’t go taking people’s stuff.”
The store was the site of a previous
robbery in which a suspect was shot to
death in a struggle for a gun and a clerk
wounded by a second robber on Aug. 11,
2011.
A group of bystanders stood talking
loudly outside the store, which had a
sign banning guns from the premises.
“They don’t play, and I don’t blame
them,” a woman said of the
storekeepers. “This (has) happened to
them before.”
Someone at the liquor store in the
immediate aftermath of the shooting had
taken a photo of the two bodies: one
whose face is visible, eyes and mouth
open; another in blood-spattered jeans
next to a thick pool of blood. A gun lies
on a mat next to racks of pork rinds and
bottled water.
The photo was posted to social media
and spread quickly, attracting a group of
people to the sidewalk next to the store’s
parking lot.
When some police personnel came out of
the building, a few bystanders crossed
the police tape to approach them.
“Where were y’all at?” yelled one man.
That’s when someone showed Larson’s
mother the photo. Her face crumpled,
and she began to cry.
Clerks at the store declined to comment
Sunday afternoon. The relative of the
store owner could not immediately be
reached for comment.
Frankie Brandon, William Larson’s older
sister, said Sunday afternoon that the
teen had stopped by their mother’s
house on Saturday night, changed
clothes, then headed back out. Later that
night, a friend came knocking on the
window asking if she had heard from the
teenager, then told her about the
shooting at the liquor store a few blocks
south.
Brandon said she and her boyfriend
hustled to the scene, and before long,
saw the photos of the two boys lying
dead that had been disseminating on
social media.
“I saw Keshawn’s face and I recognized
William’s clothes,” Brandon said. “He
had my boyfriend’s jacket on. I just
went numb.”
Brandon acknowledged her brother had
been in trouble before but did not
specify what that entailed. She said he
and Marzette were “always together,”
and that Larson recently had received
his GED and enrolled in Triton College in
suburban River Grove.
“He showed me his class schedule, filled
out his FASFA and everything,” Brandon
said. “He didn’t even get a chance to
start. I’m just lost. I’m just numb that I
won’t see my brother again.”
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