Chicago high school basketball star Ben Wilson was considered a basket phenom in 1984. He was gunned down when he was just 16 years old.
Ben Wilson, a 6-foot-7 forward from Simeon High School, was the No. 1 high school player in the country, NBC Sports reported.
Ben Wilson died due to injuries from a shooting on Nov. 20, 1984. He had been walking near his high school and got into an argument with his girlfriend with whom he had recently had a baby. During their argument, Wilson bumped into another teenager Billy Moore who was with his friend Omar Dixon.
Moore and Ben Wilson exchanged words. Moore was armed with a .22 caliber revolver. As the argument heated up, Moore pulled out the gun. When Ben Wilson lunged at Moore, according to eyewitness accounts, Moore fired two shots at him. One struck Wilson in his groin, the other struck him in his abdomen and caused significant internal bleeding.
It has been 37 years since the untimely death of Ben Wilson, who was born on March 18, 1967.
He was remembered on Twitter.
“HBD to the late Ben Wilson. He would have been 54 today & is the reason why Derrick Rose, Nick Anderson & so many Chicago ballers wore #25,” Ballislife.com tweeted.
In 2020, Ben Wilson’s brother, Anthony, publicly reconciled with the killer ahead of the documentary release of “Both Sides of the Gun: A Story of Reconciliation.”
Anthony Wilson said he agreed to meet with Moore — who was convicted in his brother’s killing — after his mother, Mary, asked the family to forgive Moore on her deathbed in 2000, Chicago Sun-Times reported.
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Moore and Anthony Wilson met in 2017 and appeared together in public in 2020.
“This is about forgiveness,” said Anthony Wilson, 43, during a 2020 screening of the documentary. “I’ve learned to forgive Mr. Moore. I was emotionally compromised meeting this man.”
Moore served 19 years and nine months in prison before his release in 2004.
