Teen pilot's body found in Pacific

PLAINFIELD, Ind. -- The U.S. Coast Guard has found wreckage from an airplane piloted by a teenager who was killed when he crashed during an around-the-world flight, a Coast Guard spokesman said Thursday.

A C-130 pilot spotted sections of the plane's fuselage and other aircraft components Wednesday night in a remote section of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of American Samoa, spokesman Gene Maestas in Honolulu said, and ships later recovered some of that debris.

The body of 17-year-old Haris Suleman was found shortly after Tuesday's crash. Crews are still searching for 58-year-old Babar Suleman, who was traveling with his son on his around-the-world flight, Maestas said. That search is still considered an active search-and-rescue case, he said.

Family spokesman Annie Hayat said Thursday that the Suleman family "keeps asking for prayers for the safe return of Babar Suleman."

Haris Suleman had hoped to set the record for the fastest circumnavigation around the world in a single-engine airplane with the youngest pilot in command. His journey was also a fundraiser to help build schools in his father's native Pakistan.

The Sulemans, who lived in suburban Indianapolis, left on June 19 and were expected to arrive back in the U.S. on Saturday.

Maestas said a Coast Guard plane was looking for additional debris and for Babar Suleman on Thursday and was working with two ships. He said the search area was originally about a mile off the coast of American Samoa but has since expanded.

Chicagoan charged

in shot fatal to girl

The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- A Chicago teenager accused of shooting dead an 11-year-old girl was aiming his gun at members of a rival gang when a stray bullet struck the girl as she was making s'mores during a sleepover, police said Thursday.

At a news conference to announce the first-degree murder charge against 18-year-old Tevin Lee, Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that police suspect the shooting of Shamiya Adams stemmed from a fistfight between a 14-year-old associated with Lee's gang and another 14-year-old from another gang.

"After observing the rival gang members he thought responsible, he opened fire without care or regard of anyone else," said McCarthy of the July 18 shooting. "Unfortunately his intended targets were standing beside the home in which Shamiya and her friends were innocently playing."

The girl was making s'mores with friends in a house in Chicago's West Garfield Park neighborhood when the bullet went through a slightly opened window, pierced a wall and struck her in the head. She died several hours later. Lee was to appear in court today. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney, and there was no listed phone number for him.

Homicide investigations, particularly those involving gangs, are difficult because witnesses often refuse to come forward. But McCarthy said police identified nine witnesses, two of whom came forward on their own, and he agreed that perhaps the senselessness of the shooting helped persuade them to cooperate.

The slaying comes at a time of renewed national media attention on Chicago after a flurry of shootings in recent weeks.

A Section on 07/25/2014

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