Marquis Banks, a 28-year-old father and all-around handyman, was shot to death after a group of men approached him in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood Sunday evening.
Marquis Banks | Facebook
For Banks’ extended family, his death marks the second relative lost to gun violence this year.
At about 9:30 p.m., Banks and at least one other man were standing on a street corner in the 2600 block of West 63rd when three males walked up and fired shots in their direction, police said.
Banks, who lived in the same neighborhood, was shot in the chest and taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A 27-year-old suffered a gunshot wound to his abdomen and was also taken to Christ, where he was listed in critical condition.
Marquis Banks | Family photo
Banks was a father of four boys and three girls, with a baby on the way, his cousin, Chiquita Dorsey, said.
“He was strong-hearted, he was a muscle to the family,” Dorsey said. “I want people to remember him by his smile, his laid back personality and the love he had for family and kids.”
Banks’ younger cousin, Devonta Dorsey, was fatally shot last June.
“They have crushed our family for the second time this year,” Banks’ aunt, Tiffany Dorsey, said. “We are not over his cousin, my son, who was killed in June. He will forever live in my heart.”
Banks had worked jobs in construction, and loved to work with his hands.
“He loved to work on apartments and buildings,” Tiffany Dorsey said. “He had learned to completely gut out a house… he did whatever he could to help out, especially if it involved a tool.”
His aunt said Banks was a hard worker and was always trying “to make a legal dollar.” She said Banks was devoted to whatever he did.
“The man loved to walk. He would walk a mile just to get wherever he needed to be,” Dorsey said. “He was amazing and he is always and forever loved.”
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire