Malcolm Tompkins / Photo from Facebook
BY CHANTELLE NAVARRO
Homicide Watch Chicago
Andrea Tompkins’ last words to her brother were “I love you,” she said.
Malcolm Tompkins, 25, was fatally shot hours later when he went to pick up Chinese food Feb. 20 at the New China Wok restaurant in the Englewood neighborhood, family said.
“That’s all he called me for earlier that day, just to say I love you,” Andrea Tompkins said. “He didn’t even have a phone, but he would always call just to check up on me.”
“He was the happiest person you could ever meet,” said Andrea Tompkins. “He was that was one person you could always turn to call … Even if he didn’t know you, he would help you with anything.”
Family said Malcolm Tompkins was such a positive person they could not remember a time he ever got upset.
Malcolm Tompkins was a “family-oriented” man who often spent time at home with his older brother and 2-year-old son, his mother, Francie Tompkins, said.
Malcolm Tompkins, who worked in construction rehabbing houses and had a ferocious appetite for doughnuts, enjoyed watching SpongeBob SquarePants with his son and was determined to be present for every milestone in his child’s life, Francie Tompkins said.
“He was there for his son literally every step of the way,” Francie Tompkins said.
On the night Malcolm Tompkins was killed, police found him shot multiple times in the 5600 block of South Green Street about 5:45 p.m., authorities said. Tompkins was declared dead less than an hour later at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
“The restaurant called and said that he hadn’t picked up the order. We’re only two blocks away, and he’s a fast walker,” Tompkins told DNAinfo Chicago. “We sat there for hours just waiting for him to come home.”
It wasn’t until later that relatives realized he was killed less than a block away from his home in 5600 block of South Peoria Street,family said.
Family said Tompkins was not in a gang, but court records indicated he has been charged numerous times, most recently a 2014 drug charge.
Nobody has been charged for the murder. Area South detectives are investigating.