Charles Short / Family photo
BY EMILY BROSIOUS
Homicide Watch Chicago
A 51-year-old ordained preacher was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was fatally shot last month in the Fuller Park neighborhood, his family said.
Charles D. Short was standing with a 32-year-old man in the 4200 block of South Princeton Avenue when when a gunman opened fire about 6:30 p.m. May 30, authorities said.
Short was struck in the head died at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The younger man was wounded but survived.
Short, who lived nearby, was coming home from the grocery to cook dinner, said his mother, Kate Taylor.
“He liked cooking,” she said. “He was good. He’d cook up ham hocks.”
Short’s was an ordained preacher at Lord’s Way Baptist Church at 1250 E. 75th Street, his mother said.
“He had so many favorite passages,” Taylor said. “He could quote them from memory.”
Short grew up on the South Side with his large family, relatives said.
Recently laid off from his job at a security company, Short was considering going back to school, Taylor said.
“He was a good person. You could ask him for anything,” said Short’s mother, Kate Taylor. “He wasn’t involved with any gangs … It wasn’t anything like that.”
Short leaves behind three children and five siblings.
Nobody has been charged for the murder. Area Central detectives are investigating.