Janet Strickland (left) and William Strickland | Chicago Police
By RUMMANAHUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
When Lesley Strickland learned her father, William Strickland, had been gunned down before his routine Saturday morning dialysis appointment, she rushed from her home in Milwaukee to Chicago’s South Side.
Strickland said she was greeted by her drunk stepmother, who started giving away furniture and discussing how she would redecorate while treating family and friends to pizza, tacos and White Castle.
The next day, Janet Strickland went to Rent-A-Center and came back with a 60-inch television and television stand with a built-in fireplace and refrigerator, Lesley Strickland said.
“There was no remorse, no crying,” Lesley Strickland recalled Wednesday of the time immediately after 72-year-old William Strickland’s murder.
Cook County prosecutors say that’s because Janet Strickland plotted to kill her husband of nearly three decades and enlisted the elderly man’s namesake grandson—Lesley Strickland’s son William Strickland—to do the deadly deed in the early morning hours of March 2, 2013, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. Read more
Iaron Brooks was reported missing by his mother on Jan. 6 after she hadn’t seen or heard from him since Dec. 22. On Tuesday, the search came to an end when his body was discovered near a South Side Park.
The 23-year-old Brooks had been shot to death, an autopsy found.
The body was found on abandoned railroad property near Avalon Park in the 1200 block of East 83rd Street at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A police source said it appeared the body had been there for some time.
An autopsy Wednesday found Brooks suffered multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.
A missing person alert had been issued Jan. 6, saying Brooks had last been seen Dec. 22 in the 11400 block of South Calumet. He lived in the 7800 block of South Shore Drive.
Area South detectives are investigating.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire
A 16-year-old boy helped beat 64-year-old Cary “Mike” Silverstein to death in December, then threw the body in a Dumpster in the West Ridge neighborhood on the North Side, according to prosecutors.
Shawndre Lehman, now 17, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of 64-year-old Cary “Mike” Silverstein, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. Lehman was 16 at the time of the murder.
Silverstein hosted a birthday party at his apartment in the 6500 block of North Hoyne about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10, 2015, prosecutors said at Lehman’s bond hearing Wednesday.
The victim got into an argument after saying derogatory things to the other person’s girlfriend, prosecutors said. That person punched Silverstein in the face, then left the apartment to cool off. Read more
Rashawn Gooden Jr. was coming out of a business Tuesday morning in the Austin neighborhood when he was fatally shot.
The 21-year-old Gooden was exiting a business in the 4900 block of West Division at 9:05 a.m. when several shots were fired, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Gooden, of the 4800 block of West Augusta Boulevard, was shot multiple times in the back, and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:38 a.m., according to police and the medical examiner’s office.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire
Two men who were found shot to death Sunday morning in an apartment in the South Side Grand Boulevard neighborhood have been identified.
Officers responded to a call of a person shot in the 5000 block of South Champlain at 10:50 a.m. and found two people unresponsive in an apartment with gunshot wounds, according to Chicago Police.
Jeremy D. Hunter, 25; and Steven Tate, 26, were both pronounced dead at the scene, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Hunter, who lived on that block, died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Tate, of the 6500 block of South Drexel, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Lawrence Campbell III was found shot to death early Sunday in a vehcile he was driving in the Longwood Manor neighborhood on the South Side.
The 22-year-old Campbell was found unresponsive in the vehicle with a gunshot wound to the back about 1 a.m. in the 9700 block of South Sangamon Street, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Police said he had been driving southbound on Sangamon when he was shot, then crashed his vehicle.
Campbell, of the 1200 block of West 61st Street, was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:20 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.
An autopsy found he died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide.
The frigid cold did not stop the bloodshed in Chicago last week, when at least 11 people were killed in violence, though two were men who had been injured the week before.
Two men who were found shot to death Sunday morning in an apartment in Grand Boulevard. Police responded to a call of a person shot in the 5000 block of South Champlain at 10:50 a.m. and found Jeremy D. Hunter, 25; and Steven Tate, 26, dead inside an apartment, authorities said.
Hunter, who lived on that block, died of a gunshot wound to the head; and Tate, of the 6500 block of South Drexel, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.
Six caskets of six family members found killed in their Gage Park home on Feb. 4 line the aisle at St. Gall Church, 5511 S. Sawyer, on Sunday night. | Brian Jackson/For the Chicago Sun-Times
By JONSEIDEL
Chicago Sun-Times
Before the funeral began Sunday for the family found murdered this month in a Gage Park bungalow, somber Spanish blessings gave way to the celebratory sounds of a traditional brass Mexican band.
With the bells of its trumpets, trombones and tuba held high above six caskets at the front of St. Gall Catholic Parish, the band shook the sanctuary as mourners filed by, paying respects to victims of a crime that has shaken the Southwest Side.
But when the oompahs ended, silence filled the church—revealing a sob that rose up from the sanctuary.
Debris litters the 5400 block of West Kamerling after a man ran down three of his family members with a car, killing one, in Austin late Saturday, police said. | Network Video Productions
A 19-year-old man intentionally struck three of his relatives with a car after a fight in the Austin neighborhood late Saturday, killing his father, Terrell Peters, police said.
The domestic fight started outside about 11:15 p.m. Saturday in the 5400 block of West Kamerling, according to Chicago Police.
The 19-year-old drove away and hit three family members with the car as he did so, police said. Read more
Vincent Avila was killed and two other men were wounded in a shooting early Saturday in the West Lawn neighborhood on the Southwest Side.
The three men were in a vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. in the 6800 block of South Lawndale when the occupants of another vehicle started shooting at them, according to Chicago Police.
The three showed up at Holy Cross Hospital and were later transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.
Avila, 23, of the 5400 block of South Moody Avenue, was shot in the chest, and was pronounced dead at 5:30 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A 25-year-old was shot in the neck and was listed in serious condition, police said. A 22-year-old man was shot in the right wrist and left shoulder and was listed in good condition.
—Chicago Sun-Times Wire
What is Homicide Watch Chicago?
Homicide Watch Chicago is dedicated to the proposition that murder is never a run-of-the-mill story. Attention must be paid to each one, not merely a select and particularly tragic few. We understand the reality of the public’s demand for news - that some stories get more attention than others. But all murders represent a degree of human suffering - direct and indirect - that cannot be ignored. Read more…
