BY SUSAN DU
Homicide Watch Chicago
Darren Ray was a conflict mentor and role model to children on his East Garfield Park block, a friend said.
On Saturday, Eugene Andrews allegedly fatally shot Ray, 42, in an alley in the 2900 block of West Flournoy Street, prosecutors said. Now area residents are questioning why one neighbor would kill another.
The father of five was not the first member of his family to murdered. Ray’s brother, Davi,d was shot dead in the neighborhood in the 1990s, said log-time friend Marcus Jenkins.
Jenkins said he grew up with Ray and Andrews and never sensed any conflict between the two men. Ray’s murder was especially shocking because he was well-known in the neighborhood as a beloved conflict mediator, Jenkins said.
“It’s a shock to everybody because you’d think that’s the last person who would get killed, and [Andrews] is the last person you’d think would kill him,” Jenkins said. “[Ray] was good people. When all the older people turned their backs for the young people, he always seemed to pop up whenever something’s going on and just alleviate it right then and there.”
Ray was one of eight Chicagoans killed over Easter weekend. He was shot multiple times about 9:30 a.m. in the 2900 block of West Flournoy Street, police said.
Andrews, 37, and Ray hugged just prior to the shooting, prosecutors said. Video surveillance shows Andrews, a registered FBI informant, meeting Ray before pulling a gun and shooting him twice, Assistant State’s Attorney Glen Runk said.
Video captured the killing and showed Ray put his hands up seconds before the shooting, prosecutors said.
Eugene Andrews / Photo from Chicago Police
Jenkins said he was 14 when he first met Ray, who even then exhibited efforts to be a role model for the younger people on the block. He was a big brother, advisor and watchdog, often cautioning kids to stop doing “something they got no business doing,” Jenkins said.
“When you’re supposed to be at school at a certain time, when he sees you leave the school, he’s going to say, ‘Don’t you be thinking about going in and out, don’t you know your momma’s gonna beat you?’” Jenkins recalled of Ray’s early years as a neighborhood peacekeeper.
Now, Ray had a reputation as a community resource, quick to lend money to friends, always seen with one of his five children in tow walking around the neighborhood where he grew up.
Since Ray’s his death, Andrews’ family has stayed mostly out of sight despite the interconnectivity of residents on the block, Jenkins said.
“Here everybody knows each other, but I mean don’t nobody really knows what’s going on,” Jenkins said. “Both of them are just lost.”
Judge James Brown denied bond for Andrews on Tuesday. He will be back in court May 14.