Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

CHICAGO — Police announced Saturday that they have charged a man with a long criminal history with the murders of a 2- year-old boy and his 26-year-old uncle who were brutally gunned down in what authorities say was a gang-related retribution killing.

Devon Swan, 26, was charged with first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of the toddler, Lavontay White, and his uncle, Lazaric Collins, who were ambushed as they were riding in a car on the city’s West Side on Tuesday afternoon. Collins' 20-year-old girlfriend was also wounded in the stomach in the attack, part of which she had unwittingly broadcast on Facebook Live.

Prosecutors said police are looking for three other individuals who may have played a role in the killing. Both Swan and Collins were documented gang members, according to police.

Swan, who is being held without bond, told detectives that Collins was targeted, because he and his associates believed that he was involved in the murder of one of his friends, said Brian Grissman, an assistant state's attorney.

The suspect also told detectives in a videotaped admission that three other individuals were with him at the time of the shooting and two opened fire on Collins, according to Grissman. Police said that the bullets that struck the toddler and woman were meant for Collins.

"Lavontay wasn't someone who made some bad decisions and lost his way or got involved in a gang conflict," Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. "He was just a little boy with his whole life ahead of him."

Police officials credited a prominent Chicago Catholic priest, Michael Pfleger, who urged community members to help police identify the shooter, with helping lead them to Swan.

Pfleger said community members who had information about the shooting reached out to him and agreed to speak to police if he accompanied them. He agreed, and police officials said those witnesses provided crucial information that led to them charging Swan.

Swan has been arrested at least nine times by Chicago Police and previously faced charges of armed robbery, unlawful use of a weapon, narcotics possession and other offences. Police arrested Swan on Thursday, and he was formally charged late Friday.

Lavontay was one of three children killed this week in gang-related gun violence in Chicago, which is suffering through a level of violence that hasn’t been seen in the city in nearly two decades.

3 children killed in crossfire amid Chicago violence

Boy, 2, killed in Chicago gang hit

Johnson announced first-degree murder charges Wednesday against Antwan Jones, 19, for the shooting death of 11-year-old Takiya Holmes.

Authorities allege Jones, who police say is a gang member with a long rap sheet, inadvertently shot Takiya, who was sitting with her family in their van last Saturday, when he fired at some rivals who were selling marijuana near his apartment complex. She succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday.

Less than an hour before Takiya was shot, Kanari Gentry Bowers, 12, was inadvertently struck in the head by gunfire as she played basketball with friends on an elementary school playground. After four days on life support, Kanari died Wednesday. Police have not apprehended a suspect in her shooting.

The city saw more than 760 shootings and 4,300 shooting victims in 2016 — more than New York and Los Angeles combined — and is off to a violent start to 2017. Through mid-February, Chicago has tallied at least 70 homicides and more than 300 shooting victims.

The department’s murder clearance rate — the calculation of cases that end with an arrest or identification of a suspect who can’t be apprehended — was 29% last year, according to the Department of Justice.

The DOJ's civil rights division released a scathing report last month that found that the Chicago Police Department beset by widespread racial bias, excessive use of force, poor training and feckless oversight of officers accused of misconduct. Justice officials make the case that building trust in the community and improving the clearance rate will be intertwine.

Pfleger, the Catholic priest who persuaded witnesses to come forward to help police arrest the suspect in the killing of Lavontay and his uncle, said that fear of retaliation is something residents in the city's most violence-plagued neighborhoods have difficultly grappling with.

"A lot of times a community doesn't respond because they are afraid. I get that," Pfleger said. "But we're just as afraid if that killer is still on the street. We have to take the initiative to say that we're going to become safer as a community when we take people who are killers off the streets. Your faith has to be greater than your fear."

Follow USA TODAY Chicago correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad