By Stefano Esposito
Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporter
Two brothers were found shot to death inside a red Dodge Charger in the West Pullman neighborhood early Tuesday, police said.
Family members identified the men as Leandre and Demetrius Cooper. Police say the brothers, 38 and 35, were found unresponsive in the front seats of the late-model sports car in the 100 block of East 120th in the Far South Side neighborhood.
The elder brother, found in the passenger seat, had been shot in the chin, police said, and the younger brother had been shot in the head and the chest.
Neither of the brothers, who were pronounced dead at the scene, are known to associate with a gang, police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.
Two strokes within the last five years have left the men’s 59-year-old mother, Bobbie Cooper, in a wheelchair. Her words are sometimes difficult to understand. But Tuesday morning, in a living room packed with sobbing relatives, she said quite clearly: “They were my everything.”
Bobbie Cooper described her two slain sons as “close and loving young men — here for me.”
She said they were her strength, and the woman who has a poster-sized Ten Commandments in her living room, said she has no idea why anyone would want to kill her two boys.
“Why? They never hurt nobody,” she said.
Leantae Cooper, the 16-year-old son of Leandre Cooper, learned of his father’s death by phone early Tuesday while at his mother’s home in East Chicago, Ind.
“He was supportive. He was there anytime I needed something. I could call him, and he would get it if I needed school supplies, clothing, the newest technology,” said Leantae Cooper, one of Leandre Cooper’s four children.
Demetrius Cooper had one teenage daughter, and the brother had three other siblings, relatives said.
Neighbors and relatives said the closeknit Cooper family gathered Monday night — like they often do — to play cards and drink beer at their mother’s home a block away on South Michigan, and the gathering broke up about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Michael Baker, 49, who lives in the neighborhood, said the brothers bought used cars at auction and then resold them. Baker said they could often be found doing car repairs in their mother’s garage.
“They was cool — they don’t mess with nobody,” Baker said. “I’ve lived in this neighborhood all my life. To have this kind of stuff going on less than a block from where I live is crazy. It don’t pay to be on the streets.”