Homicide Watch Chicago

By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

The weekly dance party was just breaking up early Sunday, and the crowd was leaving the Universal Entertainment Center when shots rang out. Mintues later, Kolby Craig was dead, six other people were injured by gunshots, and an eighth person struck by the suspect’s vehicle.

About 2:30 a.m., the group was in the parking lot following the dance in the 11900 block of South Loomis in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

That’s when a male suspect in a black SUV opened fire, according to Chicago Police. The SUV then sped away.

Craig, 33, was shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:35 a.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.
Read more

Aaron Clemons was killed and another man was critically wounded in a West Englewood neighborhood drive-by shooting early Sunday on the South Side.

The men were standing outside with a group of people about 1:25 a.m. in the 7000 block of South Paulina when a vehicle pulled up and someone inside fired multiple shots, according to Chicago Police.

Clemons, 21, suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to St. Bernard Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:19 a.m., police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Ashburn neighborhood on the Southwest Side.

A 23-year-old man suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken in critical condition to Mount Sinai Hospital.

Area South detectives are conducting a homicide investigation.

—Chicago Sun-Times wire

By ANDY GRIMM and LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times

A frantic woman parked her bullet-pocked SUV in front of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse on Friday, screaming for help for her wounded boyfriend, Kenneth Williams, who later died.

The 26-year-old woman told police someone in another vehicle opened fire on her car about 11:15 a.m. a few blocks south of the Little Village courthouse, near West 31st Street and South Rockwell, and then chased her as she raced away.

“She said she didn’t go to the hospital because she wanted to go somewhere where they would stop shooting at her,” said Robin Ross, who was walking out of the courthouse following a hearing, and overheard the woman talking to police.

The woman’s passenger, the 28-year-old Williams, had appeared at the courthouse earlier in the morning to plead not guilty to a felony charge of driving on a revoked license, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and court records. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Read more

A man charged with fatally shooting Ramal “Pooh” Hicks last year just after a Father’s Day picnic in the South Side Englewood neighborhood has been ordered held on a $1 million bond.

Lamarr J. Isaac, 34, faces one count of first-degree murder, according to Chicago Police.

Hicks had attended his family’s annual Father’s Day picnic the day before. After leaving the gathering, he was distributing leftover food to a group of homeless people at the corner of 69th and Ashland when two men approached him about midnight.

About 12:45 a.m. on June 20, 2016, Isaac shot the 34-year-old Hicks in the lower back and chest in the 1500 block of West 69th Street, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Hicks was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 3:55 a.m., authorities said. He lived in the South Side Auburn Gresham neighborhood.
Read more

By JEFF MAYES
Homicide Watch Chicago

Another 17 people died from violence in Chicago the week of August 7-13, including seven killed on a bloody Sunday that included a triple homicide and a double homicide, one of which is being investigated as a case of self-defense and the other occurring on the front steps of a church as services were getting under way.

Celeste “CeCe” Cockriel and her cousins, Narcisco “Kiko” Ledesma and Antonio “AJ” Lopez, were fatally shot at a home in the East Side neighborhood on the Far South Side Sunday. The homeowner who shot them claims they were breaking in and the shootings were in self-defense. Detectives initially questioned that man to confirm the story, but released him without charges on Wednesday, according to Chicago Police.

A police source said the 31-year-old, who has a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card, claimed he shot the three after they broke into his home. Area South detectives continue to investigate the shootings, which were ruled homicides.

Ledesma, 22, of North Austin; Lopez, 17, of East Chicago, Ind.; and Cockriel, 24, of Humboldt Park, all suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the body at 5:30 p.m. in the 10200 block of South Ewing, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

About six hours earlier, two men were killed in a shooting outside a church in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side. Emmanuel Fleming, 34, and Michael Swift, 46, were walking up the front steps of Friendship Baptist Church when they were gunned down in broad daylight, with Fleming’s young children watching.
Read more

By JACOB WITTICH
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Celeste “CeCe” Cockriel and her cousins, Narcisco “Kiko” Ledesma and Antonio “AJ” Lopez, were fatally shot at a home in the East Side neighborhood on the Far South Side Sunday. The homeowner who shot them claims they were breaking in and the shootings were in self-defense.

Detectives initially questioned that man to confirm the story, but released him without charges on Wednesday.

A police source said the 31-year-old, who has a valid Firearm Owner’s Identification card, claimed he shot the three after they broke into his home.

“We have noticed inconsistencies in his story … we’re pressing pretty hard,” police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said of investigators who were interrogating the man.
Read more

Levell M. Moore was shot to death early Friday in the Jackson Park Highlands neighborhood on the South Side, authorities said.

Two people approached the 24-year-old Moore and one of them shot him while he was standing on a sidewalk in the 6800 block of South Jeffery about 12:45 a.m., Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Moore, who lived in the Northwest Side Albany Park neighborhood, was struck twice in the chest, authorities said.

He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 2:49 a.m., the medical examiner’s said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Bond was denied for a man charged with shooting Jeremy H. Ray to death more than a year ago, several hours after they fought over a dice game in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Shaqir Mustapha, 20, has been charged with first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of the 27-year-old Ray about 9:30 p.m. on June 10, 2016, according to Cook County court records and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

While the medical examiner’s office identified the victim as “Jeremy H. Ray,” prosecutors referred to him as “Jeremy Rey” in court documents.

Ray, Mustapha and several other people were shooting dice about 5 p.m. that day on the sidewalk outside the Germano Millgate public housing complex in the 8900 block of South Brandon, court records state. Ray and Mustapha got into an argument during the dice game and Ray pulled out a gun and pistol-whipped Mustapha.
Read more

Sixteen-year-old Kejuan Thomas was a good kid, who loved to draw and dance, but his greatest love was playing basketball. And that is what he was doing when he was shot to death Wednesday afternoon in a park in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the South Side.

Thomas was playing ball with a group of teens about 4:30 p.m. at Bradley Park in the 9700 block of South Yates when a car with two male suspects inside pulled up, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

One of them jumped out of the car and fired shots.

Kejaun suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene at 4:46 p.m., authorities said.

Friends said on Facebook that Kejuan lived in the Parkway Gardens neighborhood, but often went to Jeffery Manor to play in the basketball program there because he felt the neighborhood was safer.
Read more

Robert “Lil Rob” Thornton died Wednesday morning after being critically wounded in an Austin neighborhood drive-by shooting the night before.

Thornton, 32, was standing outside about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday on a sidewalk in the 5400 block of West Rice, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

A white vehicle went past and someone inside fired shots.

Thornton was struck in his chest and right leg, police said. He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he was pronounced dead at 7:06 a.m. Wednesday.

He lived in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with memorial expenses.

Thornton’s aunt, who started the page, wrote: “The unexpected loss of a loved one is so hard to put into words. The pain is so unimaginable, I wouldn’t want anyone to feel this pain.

“I would like everyone to remember Lil Robert by his funny jokes, his charming ways, and his genuine smile.”

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire