By REEMA AMIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
David Martinez Jr. was killed and another man was wounded in a drive-by shooting early Sunday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side, police said.
The two men were standing on the corner in the 4400 block of South Honore about 12:30 a.m. when a red SUV and a light car pulled up and the occupants fired shots, police said.
Martinez, 40, of the 4500 block of South Washtenaw, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A 38-year-old man was shot in the neck and taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized, police said.
People who knew Martinez gathered under sheets of rain at the scene, some arguing with police about why his body was still on scene an hour after the shooting.
“You don’t know how big that bullet hole is. His heart could save someone,” a crying woman told a police officer behind crime scene tape. “His lungs could save someone, his liver.”
Friends of Martinez said he had been released from a three-year prison stint a couple months ago.
Carmen Galzan, 37, said she had grown up with the victim in the neighborhood and described him as a “silly” and “funny” friend. She said he had been gang-affiliated since he was a kid.
“He just came out of jail, and he was just tired,” Galzan said. “He was just tired of living this life.”
Galzan saw the man two weeks ago and had suggested he come to their local church, which she said had helped some other friends leave behind gang life. She wasn’t expecting to get a call from him Wednesday showing interest in the service — the same man who would “make fun of us when we tried to preach him” about straightening up.
“I didn’t think he had really acknowledged what I had told him about coming to church with me,” Galzan said. “When he called me on Wednesday night, it was a really nice feeling because he was like, ‘Hey Carmen, remember the church you told me about? How about if I go with you and we could hang out?’”
He called her before the service started on Wednesday night to say he would be late, Galzan said, but he never showed up. She suspects “he got caught up drinking” or hanging out with old friends.
She said she was going to call him Sunday to check up on him.
He left behind a 12-year-old daughter, Galzan said. She said her neighborhood has been praying for him.
As Galzan spoke under a porch to avoid the downpour, a sobbing woman approached police, screaming to be let through the tape to the body. Officers held her back to console her.
Galzan said it was unfortunate her friend didn’t get the message on time that life could be better, but then stopped herself.
“Actually, he did get the message on time, but he didn’t get to be saved on time.”