Homicide Watch Chicago

By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Roberto Cervantes shot himself in the head in a murder-suicide Friday that left two other men—his brother Joel Cervantes, and his father Jesus Cervantes—fatally shot and stabbed at a Northwest Side home, according to autopsies.

It was a hot summer afternoon and neighbors were hanging out on their porches, gabbing about the weekend’s block party, when gunfire suddenly erupted.

Nobody on the leafy, normally peaceful 4600 block of North Kostner could believe it — perhaps it was firecrackers or someone hammering?

Then police converged on a home.

Three people were dead inside: Police called it a domestic incident.

“We’ve lived here 50 years, and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Chicago Fire Dept. Capt. Tom Malone, who lives directly across the street from the home where the killings took place in the Northwest Side Mayfair neighborhood.
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By REEMA AMIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A 22-year-old man will appear in court Saturday after confessing to strangling Celia Cruz Reyes and Samantha Welch, one of whom was his sister, at a Northwest Side Kelvyn Park neighborhood home last October before setting the house on fire, authorities said.

Adam Ruiz | Chicago Police

Ruiz was arrested Thursday in Denver after he called authorities and admitted committing the murders, police said. Detectives went to Denver and interviewed him before arresting him and bringing him back to Chicago, a law enforcement source said.

The source added that detectives have identified one of the victims as Ruiz’s sister.

On the night of the fire on Oct. 16, 2014, fire and police officials found the bodies of two women at a home in the 4500 block of West Parker Avenue, authorities said. They were identified as the 22-year-old Reyes and 18-year-old Welch.
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By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Chicago Sun-Times

It was a hot summer Friday afternoon and neighbors were hanging out on their porches, gabbing about the weekend’s block party, when gunfire suddenly erupted.

Police at the scene on the 4600 block of North Kostner Friday night | Maudlyne Ihejirika/Sun-Times

Then police converged on a home.

Three people were dead inside: Jesus Cervantes, 72; and his sons Roberto Cervantes, 38, and Joel Cervantes, 29. Police called it a domestic incident and said it was likely murder-suicide.

“We’ve lived here 50 years, and nothing like this has ever happened,” said Chicago Fire Dept. Capt. Tom Malone, who lives directly across the street from the home where the killings took place in the Northwest Side Mayfair neighborhood.
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By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

The family of off-duty Chicago Police officer Tito M. Rodriguez Jr., killed in a crash last year while riding his motorcycle on the Dan Ryan Expressway, has filed a lawsuit against the city.

Dennis Anderson | Chicago Police

Dennis Anderson, then 51, a Cook County Juvenile Detention Center employee, was outbound in the express lanes in his red Pontiac G5 when he tried to make an illegal exit at 71st Street, crossing over a solid white line, through a median and into the local lanes, the Chicago Sun-Times previously reported. He had his sons, ages 13 and 16, in the car at the time.
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Vallan K. Francis was shot to death Friday afternoon in the West Ridge neighborhood on the North Side.

About 1:40 p.m., the 22-year-old Francis was standing outside in the 2000 block of West Arthur when a male suspect rode by on a bicycle and opened fire, authorities said.

He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and leg, police said.

Francis, who lived on the same block as the shooting, was taken to Presence Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Detectives are investigating whether the shooting was gang-related.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A 20-year-old man has been charged with a shooting that left Courtney Jackson dead and another man seriously injured in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood earlier this year.

Jamal D. Joiner | Chicago Police

Jamal D. Joiner was charged late Thursday with one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for the April 17 shooting that left 36-year-old Jackson dead, according to Chicago Police.

Police said Jackson and another 35-year-old man were in a car in the 1000 block of North Springfield about 10:50 p.m. that night when Joiner walked up with a handgun and fired several shots in their direction before running away.

Jackson, of the 1400 block of North Lotus, was shot in the chest; while the other man was struck in the neck. The men were dropped off at Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center at 1:21 a.m. April 18, where Jackson was pronounced dead, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Joiner was arrested Tuesday at his home in the 6000 block of South Eberhart Avenue, police said. He was ordered held without bond on Friday.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

16-year-old Jose Neri was killed in a shooting that also left another teenager critically wounded Wednesday evening in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

The boys were in the 6100 block of West Fullerton about 5:45 p.m. when a gunman walked up and shot them, police said.

Both teens were taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, police said.

Neri, of the 2900 block of North Normandy, was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:30 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

The younger boy, 15, was listed in critical condition early Thursday.

By SAM CHARLES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Manuel Arizaga was shot and killed while walking to work Friday morning, less than a block from the home he shared with his wife and baby girl in the Irving Park neighborhood, according to his family.

The family of Manuel Arizaga, who was shot to death while walking to work in the Irving Park neighborhood Friday morning, looks on as police investigate the crime scene. | Sam Charles/Sun-Times

His uncovered body was at the mouth of the eastern alley of Drake, just south of Waveland.

Officers at the scene said the shooting may have been a robbery gone wrong and Arizaga didn’t show any signs of being a gang member.
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Dimarkiss Scott was fatally shot in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side late Wednesday.

Just before midnight in the 1300 block of North Lockwood, the 23-year-old Scott got into a fight with another person. At some point, the other person pulled a gun and shot Scott repeatedly, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Scott, who lived on the same block where he died, was pronounced dead at 12:17 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

Police are investigating whether the shooting might have been gang-related.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JARED LANDSMAN
Homicide Watch Chicago

Marcel Pearson / Photo from Twitter

The Washington Heights community will honor the memory of 17-year-old gunshot victim Marcel Pearson with a memorial and festival a year after he was gunned down near his South Side home.

Pearson was fatally shot on July 8, 2014, while walking through Robichaux Park near his Washington Heights neighborhood home just two days before his college orientation at Western Illinois University.

At the time, police said the 17-year-old and a 15-year-old acquaintance had just left a store in the 9200 block of South Eggleston when a white van pulled up about 10 p.m. A gunman exited and opened fire—hitting Pearson in the chest and back.

However, a manager of his high school basketball team said Pearson, who lived in the 1400 block of West 114th Place, was playing basketball in the park when he was shot.

In either case, he was pronounced dead at the scene, leaving his family and his community stunned.
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