Homicide Watch Chicago

By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Chicago Sun-Times

Alma B. Hernandez of Tinley Park died when her ex-boyfriend walked into a Loop loan store where she worked Friday afternoon and fatally shot her before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Alma Hernandez | Baird & Warner

“It looks like a murder-suicide right now, domestic-related. Both shot. She’s shot a couple of times, he’s shot once in the head,” McCarthy told reporters at the scene. “We’re checking whether or not there were reports made of a domestic history between a female who works at the location and an ex-boyfriend.”
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Ricardo C. Mendez-Bucio was fatally shot Thursday afternoon while sitting in a car at a gas station in the Brighton Park neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

The 18-year-old was sitting in a vehicle in the 4700 block of South Western at 2:54 p.m. when someone walked up and fired shots, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The shooting happened at a gas station on the block.

Mendez-Bucio, of the 4500 block of South Paulina, was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 3:32 p.m., authorities said. An autopsy Friday found he died of a gunshot wound to the chest and ruled his death a homicide.

Police are investigating whether the incident was gang-related.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Police say this was one of two men seen running from the scene of a double homicide last week on West 109th Street in Roseland.

About 6:50 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, officers responding to a call of a person shot in the 500 block of West 109th found the two people outside with gunshot wounds, police said.

Drake, 20, was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived a few blocks away in the 10900 block of South Lowe.

White, 22, was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was later pronounced dead, authorities said. She lived in the 10100 block of South Carpenter.

Two men, including the one in the sketch, were seen running westbound on 109th Street just after the incident, police said. They got into a yellow compact vehicle parked at 10900 S. Parnell and drove off at a high rate of speed.
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Demetrius Wooten was walking down the street early Sunday in the West Side Lawndale neighborhood when he was shot in the head early Sunday. He died at a hospital on Wednesday.

About 12:15 a.m. Sunday, the 18-year-old Wooten was walking in the 1200 block of South St. Louis when someone walked out of a gangway and opened fire, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was struck in the head and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:07 a.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

Wooten lived in the 2700 block of West 15th Street, the medical examiner’s office said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JARED LANDSMAN
Homicide Watch Chicago

Thursday night on the West Side, a group of youth taking part in a gang intervention program will try to kick some cops’ butts—on the baseball diamond.

At Little Cubs Field in Humboldt Park, the big lights will be on and the bats swinging as one of the city’s oldest community youth programs hosts its annual Build Gang Peace League All-Star game.

Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development, or BUILD, was established in 1969 as a gang intervention program for youth in Humboldt Park, but has grown to serve over 3,000 youth annually with organized activities.

One of BUILD’s most popular programs is the Donna Dudley Peace League, with a goal of using sports “to bridge community, racial and gang barriers that keep us divided,” according to spokesman Daniel Perez.
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Marlin J. Dixon III was killed in a drive-by shooting late Tuesday in the Altgeld Gardens neighborhood on the Far South Side.

The 20-year-old Dixon was walking in the 700 block of East 131st Street at 10:55 p.m. when someone fired shots from a passing dark SUV, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. The SUV then drove off northbound.

Dixon, who lived about a block away in the 13000 block of South Evans, was shot in the face and chest, and taken to Roseland Community Hospital, where he later died, authorities said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Police cordon off the Morgan Park block where a 51-year-old man was shot to death early Thursday. | Network Video Productions

The Cook County medical examiner’s office on Tuesday confirmed what many in the Morgan Park community already knew: 51-year-old Paul J. King was shot and killed last Thursday on his Far South Side block.

Officers found King lying on a sidewalk in the 1300 block of West 108th Place about 1:20 a.m. Thursday with gunshot wounds to the chest and back, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was dead at the scene.

An officer at the scene said King lived on the block, and a neighbor said he was shot outside his house. According to the medical examiner’s office, King lived a few blocks over, in the 1200 block of West 109th Street.

The neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he was woken up by four to five gunshots, and mistook them for knocks on his front door.
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Tashanti Blanton

Tashanti Blanton has been in a cinematography program since second grade, but never imagined it would serve as a healing tool for getting over the death of her father, Tyshawn Blanton, murdered in 2013 in an Old Town convenience store.

The 13-year-old has already learned the basics of video, having created several short films in the Facets program. Now, she’s getting some hands-on experience as an international film ambassador at Facets’ International Youth Film Camp in Seoul, South Korea.

It’s the “opportunity of a lifetime,” her mother, Danielle Blackwell said.

But she needs help. The program covers room and board, but not airfare and additional fees, which have put the family in a financial bind. Airfare alone was almost $1,800.
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By JARED LANDSMAN and TRISTAN SIMS
Homicide Watch Chicago

At least eight people were killed in Chicago this past week, including two during a violent weekend in which nearly 50 people were shot.

The latest killing—during a weekend in which at least 45 people were wounded by gunfire—happened late Sunday in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

About 11:05 p.m., 32-year-old Marquis Mitchell was behind the wheel of a parked car with a passenger in the 1500 block of South Kildare when someone rode up on a bicycle and tried to rob them, police said.

When Mitchell started to drive away, the person on the bicycle opened fire, police said. He was shot in the left side and drove to the 1800 block of South Kildare, where the car crashed into a fence.

Mitchell, who lived in the 2400 block of West Madison, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. No one else was injured in the shooting.

A shooting late Friday left 17-year-old Torri Williams dead and a man wounded in the West Englewood neighborhood.
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A man shot to death in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side early Friday has been identified as 31-year-old Michael George Walton.

Michael Walton

Walton, of the 6700 block of South Crandon, was pronounced dead at 2:50 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

His death was ruled a homicide.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire