WEEK IN REVIEW: Five murdered throughout Chicago

BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor

Five people were murdered throughout Chicago last week, including a 3-year-old girl killed during a possible home invasion.

The murders included at least two shootings, a beating and a strangulation.

The city went more than six full days without a fatal shooting — the longest stretch of 2014. However, two people were shot to death over the weekend as 26 others wounded by gunfire.

The most recent murder happened when a 3-year-old girl was killed in her home in the 3300 block of North Natchez Avenue about 8:30 p.m., authorities said. Her name was not yet being released.

Area North detectives were questioning a suspect in the murder in connection with a possible home invasion, police said. An autopsy is scheduled for later Monday to determine how she was killed.

On Saturday, 20-year-old Kendall Floyd was fatally shot by a gunman in a passing minivan in the 3400 block of West Madison Street about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, authorities said.

Floyd, who lived on the block, was shot in the head and chest and died at Mount Sinai Hospital 25 minutes later, authorities said.

In the Austin neighborhood, 32-year-old Charles Lee was shot while driving in the 200 block of North Pine Avenue, authorities said. He then attempted to drive away, but crashed a short time later, police said.

Lee, of the 1700 block of North Lotus Avenue, died at Mount Sinai Hospital at 5:04 p.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

On Friday, 38-year-old Gabriel Rios was found beaten in an alley in the 5100 block of West Concord Place in the Austin neighborhood about 4:55 a.m., authorities said. Rios, of the 5300 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue, was dead at the scene.

The killings started in the Humboldt Park area when 31-year-old Daniel Kralik allegedly strangled girlfriend Victoria McManus at her apartment in the 1200 block of North Rockwell Street about 12:50 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Kralik and McManus, 26, had been dating for two years, but had recently gotten into fights about McManus starting a relationship with another man, prosecutors said. During the last fight, Kralik allegedly strangled McManus in her bedroom while her roommate was in anther room.

Overall, the medical examiner’s office has ruled at least 129 Chicago deaths in 2014 a homicide — including six people killed by police.

Additionally, the state’s attorney’s office filed first-degree murder charges against a speeding motorist who killed an off-duty police officer while trying to flee police even though the autopsy ruled the death an accident.

Chicago Police, which counts murders different, have ruled at least eight of the homicides as involuntary manslaughter, justified self-defense or accidents.

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