By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Ted Merchant | Chicago Police
Bond was set at $500,000 for a 67-year-old man charged with the fatal shooting of 80-year-old retired minister Allen Smith at the senior living facility where they both lived Monday morning in the South Shore neighborhood.
The retired Rev. Smith and Ted Merchant were both residents of the Senior Suites of Rainbow Beach at 2804 E. 77th Pl., prosecutors said in court Wednesday. Just after 1 a.m. Monday, they went out onto the facility’s back patio area, Smith walking and Merchant riding a motorized scooter.
Smith left the patio briefly to look at a vehicle while Merchant stayed on the patio, prosecutors said. When Smith returned, approached Merchant and stood in front of him, Merchant pulled out a firearm and shot Smith several times.
Merchant initially went back into the facility, before walking back outside, getting into a 2002 black Lincoln Town Car and driving away, prosecutors said.
Smith’s body was not found until 6 a.m., prosecutors said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a homicide.
When officers responded, they found Merchant still sitting in the Town Car in the senior living facility’s parking lot.
The shooting was captured on the facility’s surveillance video, and Merchant was identified by three people as the shooter, prosecutors said. He faces one count of first-degree murder.
Merchant’s public defender said he is retired and worked in real estate. On Facebook he was called a pastor who preached to residents of the facility.
Judge Donald Panarese ordered Merchant held on a $500,000 bond in court Wednesday.
Allen, originally from Indiana, graduated from Yale Divinity School, and was the founder of Christian Tabernacle Baptist Church in Hamden, Connecticut, in July 1962. He remained there until 1991, when he accepted the position of senior pastor at First Baptist Church of East Chicago. He had lived in the facility for several years since retiring.