Homicide Watch Chicago

By ANDY GRIMM, LUKE WILUSZ and JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times

Police investigate after three people were killed in a shooting Wednesday night in Englewood. | Network Video Productions

Police said about 9 a.m., Kevin Robinson fired a dozen shots at SWAT team officers who had taken up positions outside a home in the 10300 block of South Union, prompting officers to return fire. Robinson had been on the phone with a police hostage negotiator moments before opening fire on officers from a second-floor window.

It was the last communication officers would have with Robinson, who police said killed Wright, his daughter and step-daughter at a home in Englewood about 10 hours earlier.

In the hours that followed, SWAT officers blocked streets in the neighborhood for hours and warned neighbors to hide in their basements. Over a bullhorn, a hostage negotiator played a recorded message from Robinson’s mother, who waited, out of sight, with relatives. Starting around noon, police began launching canisters of tear gas into the house.
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By STEFANO ESPOSITO and JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times

Lee McCollum III | Facebook

Chicago Police found the 22-year-old unresponsive on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head at 12:37 a.m. in the 500 block of West 126th Street.

Family learned about McCollum’s death about 1 a.m. Thursday, the young man’s grandfather, George McCollum, said.

George McCollum said Thursday morning the victim’s father was at the Cook County medical examiner’s office. That office confirmed that McCollum, of the 11400 block of South Yale, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:22 a.m.

He was on his way to his job at a Wendy’s restaurant when he died, family members said.
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By ANDY GRIMM, LUKE WILUSZ and JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times

Police investigate after three people were killed in a shooting Wednesday night in Englewood. | Network Video Productions

The killings, which police called domestic-related, happened about 11:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 1500 block of West 71st Street, according to Chicago Police. The suspected killer later took his own life following a long standoff with police in the Far South Side Fernwood neighborhood.

Wright, 50, and the two 26-year-old women, who were all related, were inside their home about 11:20 p.m. by a man they knew who started shooting, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Wright, of the 1500 block of West 74th Street; and Starks, who lived on the block where the shooting happened, were shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Kinard, of the 7700 block of South Seeley, was shot in the back, and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she died at 2:37 a.m., authorities said.

Police said the shooting appears to have been domestic-related, but did not elaborate on Thursday morning.

Wright was the father of Starks, whose boyfriend is believed to be the shooter, police sources said. Several other people, including children, were in the home at the time, but were not injured.

About 4:15 a.m. Thursday, a SWAT team was called to search a building at 103rd and Union on the Far South Side.

Chicago Police later confirmed the suspect was inside the building, the perimeter has been secured and police had made contact with all the neighbors.

After an hours-long standoff, a SWAT team finally forced its way into the home, only to find the man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said Thursday.

Michael Cunningham and Jeremy Hosey died after a shooting Monday morning in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side.

They were in the 3000 block of West Jackson at 11:47 a.m. when a gunman walked up, pulled out a gun and fired multiple times, according to Chicago Police.

Both men were shot multiple times and were taken to Stroger Hospital, police said.

Hosey, 26, died at Stroger at 12:18 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 3700 block of West Grenshaw. An autopsy found he died of a gunshot wound to the torso.

Michael Cunningham, 35, died at the hospital at 1:05 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 4000 block of West Wilcox. An autopsy found he died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Ira Cotton, a former Cook County correctional officer, was shot to death early Wednesday during an attempted robbery in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood.

Ira Cotton | Facebook

Cotton was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was later pronounced dead, authorities said.

Police said his vehicle was not taken, and no one is in custody for the shooting.

Cotton worked as a correctional officer between 1983 and 2004, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman said.

“Officer Cotton gave 20 years of his life to serving his community and making Cook County a safer place,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Sheriff Dart joins his friends, family and former Cook County Jail colleagues in mourning his tragic death.”

— Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Tinesha Brooks | Chicago Police

Tinesha Brooks, 28, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of second-degree murder before Judge Timothy Joseph Joyce, according to Cook County court records.

Brooks stabbed 26-year-old Maurice Paschal during an argument over his fidelity about 11:40 p.m. May 23, 2014, at her home in the 3900 block of South Indiana, authorities said at the time.

The fight started with another man present. They first argued in a room where both of Brooks’ children were. But the man took the children out of the room and later was able to diffuse the fight.

They were arguing about whether Paschal, the father of one of Brooks’ two children, had been seeing other women, but agreed to talk out their problems on the back porch, prosecutors said at the time.
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Marquel Sharp died about 18 hours after a shooting Monday evening that also left a 16-year-old boy wounded in Auburn Gresham.

The two were shot about 6:45 p.m. in the 7600 block of South Emerald, police said.

Sharp, 18, suffered a gunshot wound to the head, and was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 1:36 p.m. Tuesday, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived in the 3600 block of West 15th Avenue in Gary, Indiana.

A 16-year-old boy was shot in the hip and was also taken to Christ Medical Center, police said. His condition had stabilized.

Investigators believe the shooting to be domestic-related, but additional details were not available Tuesday.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Michael Montgomery died Saturday, about 36 hours after being shot Friday morning just a block from his home in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side.

Montgomery, 25, was found by officers lying on the sidewalk in the 8200 block of South Maryland about 12:19 a.m. Friday, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Montgomery, who lived a block away in the 8300 block of South Maryland, was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, authorities said. He died at the hospital at 3:10 p.m. Saturday.

An autopsy found he died of a gunshot wound to the neck and his death was ruled a homicide.

—Chicago SUn-Times Wire

By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Courtney Ealy, aka Cdai | Chicago Police

Judge Vincent Gaughan handed down the sentence Monday to 21-year-old Courtney Ealy for the Feb. 22, 2014, shooting, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Ealy performs rap music under the name Cdai

Ealy and 19-year-old Clint Massey, who performs as RondoNumbaNine, were part of a group looking for retaliation for a previous shooting when they took three cars to the Wentworth Gardens apartment complex in the 3700 block of South Princeton, prosecutors said.

Ealy and Massey got out of their vehicle when they spotted Boyd in the driver seat of a car parked on the block. They walked up to the passenger side, asked Boyd where he was from, then opened fire, shooting the 29-year-old seven times, prosecutors said.
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By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Sherry L. Robinson | Chicago Police

Sherry L. Robinson, 50, later admitted to police that she was the one who plunged the knife into Knox’s chest early Monday morning, and only threw off dispatchers with the robbery story because she was scared, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Lesley Gool said in court Tuesday.

The couple had known each other for two decades and had been dating on-and-off for 10 years. Robinson was arrested in 2009 for stabbing Knox, but was never charged, Gool told Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil.

On Sunday, the 51-year-old Knox came to Robinson’s apartment in the 4500 block of South Drexel, where the pair drank beer and watched a movie.
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