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“Saturday was one of the few times the boys had been allowed to walk out on the South Side streets alone,” their grandmother, Bernice Fitzpatrick said.

A 15-year-old Chicago identical twin has died after attempting to save his brother’s life while they were being robbed. Identical twins Demario and Demacio Bailey met an unusual and horrific fate when the 15-year-olds were recently allowed more freedom and could walk home alone instead of being picked up and dropped off. The sophomore brothers were walking between the bus stop and their high school (Johnson College Prep in Chicago), on their way to a basketball game on Saturday when four men started harassing them underneath a viaduct. According to the Chicago Tribune, these harassers were there to rob the Bailey boys.

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The police report stated that the harassers ordered the brothers to “give it up,” and they started going through the twins’ pockets. A struggle and fight ensued, and Demario saw that one of the robbers was on top of his brother, so he went to Demacio’s aid, telling the attacker to “Get off my brother,” and he was able to push the robber off.

Demacio saw a weapon appear from one of the assailants and heard a shot go off, the report said. He thought Demario was right behind him as he ran away. But when Demacio turned around, he didn’t see his brother, instead he found him on the ground with a gunshot wound to his chest. Demario was pronounced dead on the scene three minutes later.

The robbers ran off and the police questioned several people right after the shooting. The investigators believe that the same boys who killed Demario were responsible for two other armed robberies in the area.  According to reports, Carlos Johnson, 17, has been charged with first-degree murder in Demario’s slaying and with another robbery that took place nearby not long before Demario’s slaying, said Cook County state’s attorney’s spokeswoman Sally Daly. Johnson was expected to appear for a bond hearing Monday.

“Demario was an excellent child, all my grandchildren are … just honorable children,” the boys’ grandmother, Bernice Fitzgerald said. “That’s how they were raised. They were raised to be good children. They were raised to stick together. We always said, ‘Take after your brother, look after your brother.’”

And Demario did just that, but lost his life. The twins would beg their mother to give them more freedom and allow them to do things on their own.  Fitzgerald said, “We promised them we would give them a little more freedom. We let them go for one month. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do now.”

Students, faculty and more gathered at the Johnson College Prep school over the weekend to mourn Demario together. “He truly embodied the motto, ‘I am my brother’s keeper,’ ” said Ketica Guter, a history teacher who works with the sophomore class. One classmate said that Demario was the only person who could make her smile at school and that his death was “eye-opening.” Demario was “funny, smiling all the time,” said his adviser, Rachel Terry. He came from a home with a “very involved mother.”

RIP Demario–a good kid who lost his life way too soon.

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