Unless you were a regular at gymnasiums on the North Side, or a local hoops junkie, you may never have heard the name of Gregory Dion Tucker Jr.
Gregory Dion Tucker Jr. and his daughter, Riley. | Facebook
But when the 25-year-old died several hours after he was shot Sunday night in the Uptown neighborhood, there was a collective groan from the area hoops community.
Tucker, who had played ball at local gyms in the Lincoln Park and Uptown areas all his life, was driving south in the 4500 block of North Hazel at 8:35 p.m. Sunday, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Someone fired shots at the car, striking him in the head, police said.
Tucker, who lived in the 4800 block of North Winthrop, was taken to Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 11:41 a.m. Monday, according to the medical examiner’s office and family members.
A 25-year-old man was fatally shot Sunday night while driving in Uptown. | NVP News
A hoops star at both Whitney Young and then Lincoln Park high schools, Tucker went on to play junior college ball at North Dakota College of Science, before transferring to Chicago State University, where he played ball and studied criminal justice.
Jeremy Muhammad lives in Florida, but played with Tucker at Lincoln Park and was a lifelong friend, expressed his frustration on Facebook over the senseless shooting.
“I don’t understand why these senseless acts of violence happen to good people,” he wrote, then discussed a chance meeting with Tucker last summer.
“I knew him since I was 16 years old. He was very happy to see me as I was the same to see him. He expressed how happy he was to be a father and how he had a newfound purpose to do everything in his power to provide and protect his daughter Riley. He told me how proud he was of me to get out of the city and go explore and get my education …”
Former teammate and coach Daniel Poneman said Tucker had nothing to do with the violence on the streets that killed him.
“Today we lost a friend, a father, a beloved member of our Chicago Basketball Community, an Uptown legend, Greg Dion Tucker Jr., age 25. He was a great basketball player, but to all who knew him and played alongside him, a Legendary human being and teammate.
“Greg was not a gang banger in any form or fashion. I doubt if Greg ever held a gun in his life. And yet, his life was taken, in what looks to be a retaliation for another murder that he had nothing to do with. He was shot in the head while driving his car, on the north side of Chicago, for something he had absolutely nothing to do with.”
Poneman wnent on, “Greg’s death is tragic and unsettling for so many reasons. Not only because he left behind a loving family and an infant daughter. But because the way in which he died truly shows us that it could happen to anybody, at any time, in any part of Chicago. This isn’t just a west side problem, this isn’t just a south side problem, this isn’t just a gang problem, this is a Chicago problem, an America problem, a human problem - that affects all of us.”
—Homicide Watch Chicago and Chicago Sun-Times Wire