Dominique Hodrick / Photo from Chicago Police
Dominique Hodrick has been charged with murder for allegedly shooting 58-year-old Brooks special education teacher Betty Howard last month in the Chatham neighborhood.
Hodrick is accused of shooting Howard about 5:30 p.m. in the 7900 block of South Evans Avenue, authorities said.
Howard, of the 2200 block of South 14th Avenue in Broadview, was shot working her second job in her Chatham real estate office, her family said.
As a teacher at Brooks, Howard would travel to homes to teach disabled students — doing whatever it took to help some of the city’s most challenged youth, Brooks College Preparatory Academy Principal D’Andre Weaver said.
Howard, who taught at Brooks for seven years, even rode school buses to help out when school aides were absent, Weaver said.
Betty Howard/ Photo from Family
“It’s crazy, she wasn’t a thief, she didn’t harm anyone,” Long said, noting Howard’s brother, Orlando Long, is a police officer. “This isn’t how it was supposed to end for her.”
Hodrick, 33, of the 7900 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, police said.
A 23-year-old woman was also wounded in the shooting and Hodrick was charged with two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, police said.
In 2011, Hodrick was charged with possession of a firearm and not having a Firearms Owner ID card. The gun charge was dropped. He pleaded guilty to the FOID charge and was sentenced two years of probation, which he completed on March 4, according to court records.
Hodrick is expected in bond court later Thursday.
— Chicago Sun-Times staff