Family man’ Tony Goodrich Sr. shot to death on porch while visiting his mother in West Pullman

Tony Goodrich Sr. was fatally shot Tuesday night in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side when someone opened fire on a porch in the same block.

About 8:15 p.m., the 44-year-old Goodrich was in the 12300 block of South Emerald Drive, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Someone walked up to him, fired shots and ran away, police said.

Goodrich, who lived on the same block as the shooting, was shot in the neck and was pronounced dead at the scene at 8:32 p.m., authorities said.

His wife, Arkyta Goodrich, said he was standing outside his mother’s home talking with her neighbors when someone began shooting at a group of people on a porch from the corner.

He had left his home nearby about 30 minutes earlier to visit her, and did not get a chance to see his mother before he was shot.

Arkyta Goodrich said she met her husband when she was 6 years old. They grew up across the street from each other and began dating in 1996. In 2002, they were married.

“He was a family man,” she said of his dedication to her and their four children.

When their daughter was having trouble with a customer at the fast-food restaurant where she worked, he went with her to work for four months, she said, to make sure she was safe.

On a GoFundMe page set up to help with funeral expenses, Goodrich’s son wrote: “My father, Mr. Tony Goodrich Sr. was a great man. He loved and cared for any and everybody, literally!!! My father wasn’t a selfish man at all. He touched a lot of people; but I can say that he made me whom I am today.

Truly, I really hate that I had to lose him to senseless gun violence; my father wasn’t that kind of man. This has effected so many people in the most hurtful way. I’m not even sure how to come to you all for this kind of support but if you knew Tony; you know that he would help anybody.”

Arkyta Goodrich said she hoped to hold a march against violence in the area in his honor after his funeral.

Area South detectives were conducting a homicide investigation.


—Chicago Sun-Times Wire and Homicide Watch Chicago

Man killed in shooting in South Shore identified as 21-year-old Terry Mubarak Barry

A man who was killed in a shooting that left another man wounded last week in the South Shore neighborhood has been identified as 21-year-old Terry Tyee Mubarak Barry.

The shooting happened at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 7000 block of South Chappel, according to Chicago Police.

Barry and a 24-year-old man were both shot in the head, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Barry, who lived nearby in the same neighborhood, was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:23 p.m., authorities said.

The older man was taken in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, police said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Only 18, Romaine Elkins was a role model who looked out for family and friends in his own ‘Elkins way’

By ANALISA TROFIMUK
Homicide Watch Chicago

563930_104115966400722_536707349_n


Romaine Elkins | photo from Facebook 

Romaine Elkins’ last words to his cousin and best friend, Lawante Montgomery, were, “I love you,” not long before he was shot and killed on the evening of June 9 in the Austin neighborhood.

Elkins, 18, was standing in 1500 block of North Linder when he was fatally shot, according to Chicago Police.

Before moving to the west suburban Naperville, Elkins was a Chicago resident. He attended Chicago Jesuit Academy, where he played cymbals and bass drum under the direction of Isaiah Spencer.

Spencer has taught percussion for 20 years and currently teaches at New Trier High School in Winnetka. He taught Elkins at CJA from about 2011 to 2013. According to Spencer, Elkins was always the comedian and leader in the drumline.

Elkins “proclaimed” to his classmates that he was the funny guy, according to Spencer, who called him a genuinely nice guy whom younger students and his two younger brothers looked up to as a role model.
Read more

WEEK IN REVIEW: 10 more killed as Chicago surpasses the 500 homicide mark for the year

Ten more people were homicide victims in Chicago during the week of Sept. 18-24 as the city passed another deadly milestone, as the 500th homicide of the year was recorded early in the week.

Sun-Times file photo by Ashlee Rezin

Sun-Times file photo by Ashlee Rezin


A man who died early Monday after being shot Sunday night in the Washington Heights neighborhood on the Far South Side turned out to be the 500th homicide of the year.

The only good news, relatively, was the 500th homicide came later in the year than it did in the 2016, when Chicago tallied 780 homicides for the year, the most in 20 years.

This year’s 500th homicide came on Sept. 25, while last year, it happened on Sept. 4.

John Bolden, 47, was sitting in a parked car at 11:22 p.m. in the 10100 block of South Racine when someone in a gray van fired shots, striking him multiple times in the side of the body, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 12:20 a.m. Monday. As of Sept. 18, 2016, there had been 534 homicides.

In other homicides last week:

    A man was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning in the West Side Austin neighborhood. Dashawn Townes, 34, was shot in the neck and chest by someone in a silver sedan at 9:31 a.m. in the 900 block of North Massasoit, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. Townes, who lived nearby, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died 30 minutes later.
    Read more

16-year-old Michael Hickingbottom found shot to death in Woodlawn alley

Sixteen-year-old Michael D. Hickingbottom was fatally shot Monday night in an alley in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

Officers responded at 9:47 p.m. to a call of shots fired in the 6400 block of South Langley, according to Chicago Police.

They found the teen in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds to his head and body, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Hickingbottom, who lived in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side, was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:10 p.m., authorities said.

No one was in custody, and Area Central detectives are investigating.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Anthony Oliver of Aurora shot to death while sitting in his vehicle in Austin

Anthony Oliver of west suburban Aurora was shot to death Monday evening in the West Side Austin neighborhood.

The 46-year-old Oliver was sitting in a vehicle at 8:46 p.m. in the 5100 block of West Concord, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Someone walked up to the vehicle and fired shots.

Oliver suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body, and was pronounced dead at the scene at 9 p.m., authorities said.

No one was in custody as Area North detectives investigate.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

There’s nothing in these streets but violence’: Christopher Hardrick shot to death during West Englewood vigil

By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Family members and friends watch as Chicago Police investigate in the 6600 block of South Oakley, where a 28-year-old Christopher Hardrick was shot to death early Tuesday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Family members and friends watch as Chicago Police investigate in the 6600 block of South Oakley, where a 28-year-old Christopher Hardrick was shot to death early Tuesday. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times


Christopher Hardrick was shot to death early Tuesday during a vigil that brought dozens of people to a block in the West Englewood neighborhood.

“He was one of the most passive, sweetest people you could meet,” Hardrick’s aunt, Tammie Hardrick, 52, said. “He was not a gangbanger, I just think he had the wrong choice of friends.”

Officers were called at 2:37 a.m. about a person shot in the 6600 block of South Oakley and arrived to find the man lying unresponsive on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head, according to Chicago Police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Family members identified the victim as the 28-year-old Hardrick, who lived with his grandfather on the block.

“I can’t possibly imagine why somebody would shoot Chris,” said Tammie Hardrick, one of more than a dozen people gathered outside the crime scene tape early Tuesday.
Read more

34-year-old Dashawn Townes killed in drive-by shooting on block where he lived in Austin

Dashawn “Todyfoe” Townes was killed in a drive-by shooting Sunday morning on the block where he lived in the West Side Austin neighborhood.

Townes, 34, was shot in the neck and chest by someone in a silver sedan at 9:31 a.m. in the 900 block of North Massasoit, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Townes, who lived on the same block, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 10:07 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Darius Edwards dies about 11 hours after wounded in drive-by shooting near his home in Austin

Darius Edwards died several hours after being shot early Saturday in an Austin neighborhood drive-by attack on the West Side.

The 28-year-old Edwards was walking through an alley at 12:07 a.m. when a maroon van drove up in the 400 block of South Lotus, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Someone inside the van fired shots and Edwards was struck in the groin. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he died at 11:01 a.m. the same day, authorities said. He lived about a block away from where he was shot.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Man charged with fatal shooting of Gregory Wong during botched robbery attempt in 2016 in East Garfield Park

By LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Joseph Brown | Cook County Sheriff's Dept.

Joseph Brown | Cook County Sheriff’s Dept.


Bond has been denied for a South Side man charged with the fatal shooting Gregory Wong during an attempted robbery on the West Side in 2016.

Joseph Brown, 25, was charged last week with felony counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder, according to Chicago Police.

Investigators identified Brown as the man who fatally shot the 51-year-old Wong about 7:20 p.m. on Nov. 2, 2016, in the 3000 block of West 5th Avenue in East Garfield Park, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Wong, who lived in the South Side Bridgeport neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gregory Wong | photo proivided

Gregory Wong | photo proivided


Brown is also accused of another shooting a few weeks earlier in the West Side Austin neighborhood, police said.

He allegedly confronted a 22-year-old man about 7:50 p.m. Oct. 19, 2016, in the 200 block of South Central Avenue and opened fire, striking the man in the leg. The victim was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition.

Brown, who lives in the Bronzeville neighborhood, has been held at the Cook County Jail on a $100,000 bond since his arrest on Nov. 10, 2016, on an unrelated felony charge of being an armed habitual criminal, according to police and the Cook County sheriff’s office.

He appeared in bond court on the new charges Friday and was ordered held without bond, according to Cook County court records. His next court date was scheduled for Oct. 11.