(CNN) -- Tyshawn Lee was "lured" into the alley where he was killed, McCarthy said, standing steps from the crime scene. "Tyshawn Lee was murdered in probably the most abhorrent, cowardly, unfathomable crime that I've witnessed in 35 years of policing," the superintendent said. "We're pretty certain that this is not an accident.
The child was targeted, according to McCarthy, because of his "family relationship with a member of a gang."
When asked which family member, he identified the boy's father.
"Tyshawn's father has ties to a certain gang that is in conflict with another gang," McCarthy said.
The father, Pierre Stokes, is not cooperating with police.