Mother of murdered boy buys car, faces backlash

CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -- The mother of a murdered 9-year-old Chicago boy fought back against social media backlash Saturday, after the some in the public became outraged that she bought a car with her son's burial money. Friends and strangers alike have already donated more than $17,000 to a "GoFundMe" page that is headlined "Help me lay my baby to rest" that was set up for Karla Lee, mother of Tyshawn Lee. Tyshawn was lured from a park into an alley and executed because of his father's alleged gang connections.

Since then, someone else has stepped up to pay for the funeral.

Lee says the reason for the new car is simple: she's "one hundred percent" afraid for her life. But when the public learned of Lee's purchase, some were outraged and called it a "shame" and "disgrace."

She defended herself, and said she didn't create the crowdsourcing page. She said she's saved money for months for a new car. She took to her own social media in response to the backlash and said in an Instagram video: "This don't make no sense I am so tired of ya'll social media and ya'll Facebook people bashing me, ya'll don't even know me I was the best mother I was to my son."

Lee said she has no problem walking to work, but now she's worried she has a target on her back.

"I work right in the area around where the conflict between these two gangs, I work right over there, so what ya'll want me to be walking and then they see me and they kill me too?" she asked Saturday.

Public outrage aside, this mother still wants answers, who killed her son and why.

"Step up, break this code of silence or whatever ya'll got going on with this gang stuff break that put the guns down," she said. "Ya'll killing babies out here."

This GoFundMe account is separate from the reward money being offered for information leading to an arrest in the case. That amount is now more than $54,000.