Homicide Watch Chicago

By ANDY GRIMM
Chicago Sun-Times

Cook County prosecutors have filed murder charges against two men in connection with the 2016 killing of Eric Banks near his home in the Washington Park neighborhood.

Deshawn Garrett and Deonte Bowdry pulled up next to Banks and a second person on the street about 2 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2016, near Banks’ home on 57th and State, Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said at a bond hearing for Bowdrey.

Bowdry, 28, was behind the wheel of a tan Buick, when Garrett, 21, got out of the back seat and walked toward Banks, firing a handgun, Santini said.

Banks, 25, attempted to run from the “hail of gunfire,” but was struck by a bullet and fell to the ground. Garrett then walked toward Banks, stood over him and continued firing, Santini said.
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Derrick Nelson was fatally shot Wednesday morning in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

At 8:52 a.m., the 30-year-old Nelson was standing at the corner of 13th Street and Independence Boulevard when a man walked up, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office

The suspect pulled out a gun and shot Nelson several times. He was struck once in the head, once in each arm, and multiple times in the body, police said.

Nelson was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:28 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.

The gunman ran away after the shooting, police said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By ZOE FISHER
Homicide Watch Chicago

On Sundays, Isaiah Carter played Gerald Levert or Bobby Womack to coax his mother into cooking for him.

“If he wanted me to do something, he’d play music,” Angel Brown said.

While in the kitchen, she also taught him to cook a few things. Making chicken was his favorite. He would, “BBQ, fry it, boil it,” his mother said. He planned to enroll in culinary school after graduating from Manley Career Academy on the West Side in June.

Carter wanted to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Rico Brown, who was in culinary school at the time.

“Almost everything turned out bad,” his brother said about Isaiah’s cooking experiments. “Milk and butter are not the cure to everything like we thought.”

Rico Brown dropped out of culinary school after his brother died, but now feels he has enough strength to return.

Carter was killed on Nov. 24, 2011, a day before his 19th birthday. His mother called him a “thanksgiving baby”—the youngest of her four children. Born at 28 weeks, Angel Brown gave him special attention.
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By DANIEL BROWN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Shaquille Alexander was found shot to death Thursday morning in the West Englewood neighborhood.

Alexander, 21, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the head at 5:24 a.m. in the 5600 block of South Seeley, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Alexander, of the 2700 block of West 61st Street, was pronounced dead at the scene at 5:54 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

The body could be seen lying in the middle of Seeley between 56th and 57th streets, covered in a blue sheet and surrounded by seven to eight shell casings.
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Antoine Johnson was shot to death early Sunday in the West Side Austin neighborhood.

Johnson, 31, was shot in the back at 2:18 a.m. in the 5000 block of West Van Buren, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:06 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the 1900 block of South Homan.

Police could not provide further details about the shooting.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

While he was sitting at a table in his second-floor apartment in Roseland on Tuesday night, Demarco V. Kennedy was struck by a bullet fired from outside.

It was about 8:10 p.m. and the 32-year-old Kennedy was home in the 600 block of East 102nd Place. He was eating dinner before heading to work when he was shot in the neck, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Kennedy was taken to Trinity Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 10:14 p.m., authorities said.

Kennedy is the father of three, but while his wife and kids were home at the time, they were in another room and were not injured, a police source said.

Police believe the shots may have fired from the parking lot of a Popeye’s restaurant down the block, but no one was in custody as of Wednesday afternoon.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A man was ordered held without bond Saturday for the fatal shooting of Courtney Taylor last week at a hotel near McCormick Place.

Armonte Hooper, 23, was charged with one count of first-degree murder for the shooting that left the 25-year-old Taylor dead in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place at 2233 S. King Drive, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

About 2:20 a.m. Jan. 23, Taylor and Hooper were among several people fighting in the hotel lobby when Hooper pulled out a gun and shot Taylor in the head, authorities said.
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By KRISTEN TORRES
Homicide Watch Chicago

Marla Conway last heard from her son, Luther Levall Turner, on Oct. 27, 2006. “He was on his way home from his girlfriend’s house,” Conway said. “He called his sister and said he’d be home soon. I went to bed right after that.”

He never made it home.

The 18-year-old, who lived in the 1100 block of South Richmond Street, was standing on the sidewalk in the 1500 block of South Central Avenue about 12:20 a.m. when a man approached and shot him once in the head, Chicago Police said at the time.

“I woke up to my daughter saying the police were on the phone, and they needed me to get down to Mount Sinai to identify my son,” Conway said. “I was expecting them to rush him to the ER and take the bullet out of his head, but they said we would have to wait until the morning for the neurologist to take a look at him. That was the hardest part—all the waiting.”
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Chicago Police say they are taking new steps to quell gun violence because of a continuing rise in murders this year.

So far this year, murders have risen 21 percent—and most were the result of shootings.

“We’re constantly improving our performance and right now the most important thing that we’re doing that we changed our policy on is the fact that we are now sending detectives to every single gun arrest to gather evidence and treat that crime with the seriousness it deserves just like a robbery or burglary,” police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Thursday morning on WGN-TV.

“The results to date are not acceptable to anyone,” CPD said in a statement released Thursday. New strategies to reduce shootings include putting detectives in each police district to improve “collaboration and community intelligence as they work to solve cases and get dangerous criminals off the street,” the statement said.
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Jeffrey Maldonado, an aspiring artist and musician, was fatally shot on the day after his 19th birthday in 2009 in Pilsen.

Cassandra Suggs-McRoy was strangled by her abusive husband after obtaining an order of protection against him in 2002.

They are just two of the homicide victims to be memorialized on Saturday at UIC during a special ceremony led by county prosecutors that will also recognize the surviving families and loved ones.

The parents of Maldonado and Suggs-McRoy will be among the speakers at the event, arranged by the State’s Attorney’s Victim Witness Assistance Unit.

State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez will recognize surviving loved ones at the ceremony, designed to “memorialize victims of violent crime and to help survivors embrace and honor those lost to violence,” a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office said.

Along with the memorials and personal reflections, the event will include an on-site support group for those looking for help; and a display of more than 100 photo boards assembled by family members with photos of those lost to violence.

The free event begins at 11 a.m. at the UIC Forum at 725 W. Roosevelt Rd.