By JORDAN OWEN and MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Ezequiel Villanueva | Chicago Police
A second man has been charged in connection with the murder of Oscar Rodriguez during a gang shooting in the Southwest Side Little Village neighborhood on Labor Day 2014.
Ezequiel Villanueva, 37, was charged with murder for the attack on Sept. 1, 2014, according to Chicago Police. Oscar Garcia, 22, was previously charged with murder and attempted murder.
About 2:50 a.m. that day, about 10 members of the 2-6 and Darkside 2-6 gangs were gathered in a front yard in the 4300 block of West 25th Place, Assistant State’s Attorney April Gonzales said at Villanueva’s bond hearing Tuesday.
Villanueva and Garcia, both Latin Kings, approached the rival gang members from an alley, he said.
Oscar Garcia | Chicago Police
Garcia entered the side yard next door through a rear metal gate and Villanueva followed, Gonzales said. Once in the side yard, Garcia fired several shots while Villanueva remained by the gate and acted as a lookout.
After Garcia was done firing, he and Villanueva ran off.
Rodriguez, 23, was shot once in the back of the head and died the next day at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 4900 block of South Winchester.
An 18-year-old man suffered a through-and-through gunshot wound to the right shoulder, another gunshot wound to the right side of his chest, and a third to the right side of his back. He was also taken to Mount Sinai, Gonzales said. He survived, but suffered a collapsed lung and now suffers chronic pain.
Security cameras captured a silver vehicle driving past and down the alley behind where the shooting happened about three times, then captured the shooting, Gonzales said. It also captured Garcia and Villanueva fleeing.
Villanueva was arrested at the Cook County Jail, where he had been held since Dec. 15 on an unrelated weapons charge, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. Bond for that case was $250,000.
Judge Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil ordered Villanueva, who lives in the 2600 block of South St. Louis, held on a $1 million bond Tuesday for the murder case.
Garcia, of the 2300 block of South Whipple, was arrested Friday, police said. He was ordered held on a $2 million bond Saturday, according to court records.