By SAM CHARLES, ANDY GRIMM and MITCHELL ARMENTROUT
Chicago Sun-Times
Maurice Harris | Chicago Police
Maurice Harris’ father — 37-year-old Jerry Jacobs, who had nearly four dozen arrests, including two for murder — was gunned down on a sidewalk in the South Shore neighborhood around 11:15 p.m. March 29.
The next day, his son appears to have been out for revenge, police say.
Around 3:30 p.m. March 30, the 19-year-old Harris fatally shot four men at a restaurant within a mile of where his father’s blood was spilled, according to police.
Police said Wednesday the shootings are the product of an ongoing gang war and that “a reasonable person would believe” they are connected. They also said that a double homicide in South Shore later on March 30 might be related to the restaurant killings.
If so, it would be a staggering series of events: 24 hours, three shootings, seven dead, one gang war.
Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson discusses the slaying of four people in South Shore. The man charged in that shooting lost his own father to a fatal shooting the day before, police said. | Sam Charles/Sun-Times
And, so far, one arrest: Harris, who was ordered held without bond Wednesday after being charged with four counts of first-degree murder in connection with the quadruple murder at Nadia Fish and Chicken, near 75th and Coles.
Brendan Deenihan, commander of Area Central detectives, said Jacobs was fatally shot in the 7900 block of South Phillips on March 29. He was on the sidewalk when four males got out of a dark-colored van and opened fire, police said at the time.
“I think a reasonable motive would be that his father got killed and subsequently he shoots and kills these four people,” Deenihan said. “Does he do that randomly? Only he can answer that question. I wouldn’t suspect he just picked four random people on the street. That wouldn’t make sense to me.”
Jerry Jacobs | Facebook
Harris has not given a confession and was arrested Tuesday near 127th and Western, said Deenihan, who added that several eyewitnesses told police Harris was the only shooter.
The shooting was part of an ongoing conflict between factions of the Gangster Disciples and Black P Stones gangs, Deenihan said. Prosecutors said Wednesday that Harris is a documented member of the No Limit faction of the Black P Stones.
Deenihan said it was not known if any of the four killed at the restaurant were involved in Jacobs’ death. He said Jacobs had been arrested 47 times, including twice in murder cases.
The quadruple homicide — the first in Chicago in 2017 — occurred on a particularly violent day in South Shore when seven people were fatally shot within a mile of each other in a 12-hour span.
Dillon Jackson | family photo
Two of those victims, a 27-year-old man and 23-year-old woman, were shot to death around 11 p.m. as they were traveling in a van near 70th and South Shore Drive. A black Jeep pulled alongside them and someone inside the Jeep opened fire, police said.
Deenihan said that the double homicide and quadruple homicide “may be related,” but there was no indication that those cases were connected to the other fatal shooting in South Shore on March 30. That shooting took the life of 26-year-old Patrice L. Calvin, who was four months pregnant. She was found fatally shot in the head around noon in the 7500 block of South Luella.
About 3:30 p.m., the four men were fatally shot at the restaurant, two inside and two outside. They were identified as: Emmanuel C. Stokes, 28; Edwin Davis, 32, and brothers Dillon Jackson, 20, and Raheam Jackson, 19.
The Jackson brothers had gone to Nadia Fish and Chicken to visit their mother, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years, according to their grandmother, Georgia Jackson, who also said her 16-year-old grandson was fatally shot at an Englewood Church’s Chicken in 2011.
Raheam Jackson | family photo
At Harris’ court hearing Wednesday, his lawyer, Ian Barney, asked Judge Adam Bourgeois to grant Harris’ request for bond so the teen could attend his father’s funeral this week.
Judge Adam Bourgeois ordered Harris held without bond, noting the teen had notched 29 juvenile arrests.
Assistant State’s Attorney Jaime Santini said witnesses saw Harris follow Stokes and Davis into the restaurant with a semi-automatic handgun. After gunning down the two men inside, Harris ran out of the restaurant. Witnesses then heard more gunshots from outside.
Emmanuel Stokes | Facebook
Barney said that there was no video and he expected to present witnesses who could prove Harris was with them at the time of the murders.
“There is perhaps more to this story than has been told,” Barney said.