Homicide Watch Chicago

By LUKE WILUSZ
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Four-month-old Janylah Mack died Thursday from injuries suffered in utero when her father allegedly beat her pregnant mother and killed her 3-year-old brother Tayveon J. Thomas.

Janylah was pronounced dead at 10:09 a.m. Thursday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. An autopsy Friday found the baby, who lived in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood, died from complications of injuries her mother suffered in an assault while pregnant. Her death was ruled a homicide.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is investigating her death, according to spokeswoman Veronica Resa.

A DCFS statement said Janylah died “as the result of injuries suffered in utero from an apparent domestic violence incident that took place when the mother was 34 weeks into her pregnancy, October 31, 2016.”

Her father, Devon Thomas, 22, was charged with murder and aggravated battery in November for an attack on his 3-year-old son Tayveon, and his then-pregnant mother, authorities said at the time.
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By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Gizzell Ford, a straight-A student, was by seen almost everyone who crossed her path as a “blessing”—a lovely, bright smart girl.

The 8-year-old, in her diary, expressed a desire to have a fulfilling relationship with her paternal grandmother nourished with deep conversation and love.

But all Helen Ford gave Gizzell was hell, according to Cook County prosecutors.

Tying her to a pole attached to her father’s bed, Gizzell was used as “punching bag,” whipped with a belt and deprived of food, water and sleep for days, prosecutors said.

“That child suffered a slow, painful, agonizing death,” an incensed Judge Evelyn Clay said Thursday before finding the 55-year-old Ford guilty of murder in a case that drew criticism for how the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services handles matters.
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By ELIZABETH CZAPSKI
Homicide Watch Chicago

When Alexandria Batie looks at her three-year-old son, she sees his father, Justin T. Bowman. “His son is the spitting image of him,” said Batie, Bowman’s fiancée. Her son also shares Bowman’s childhood love of Spider-Man.

Bowman was shot to death on April 24, 2016, in the Logan Square neighborhood on the Northwest Side.

Police were called to a report of gunshots at 6:23 p.m. in the 3600 block of West Schubert, and found the 25-year-old lying on a sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the chest, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Bowman was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 7:07 p.m., authorities said. He lived not far away in the same neighborhood.

Alfredo Ramos was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting Bowman, and is being held in the Cook County Jail without bond. His next court appearance is Feb. 24, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office.
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By JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

At least 16 people were killed in violence in Chicago last week as the city’s homicide total passed the 100 mark less than two months into the year. The week’s victim included an engaged couple and their unborn child, and a baby who had survived 5 months after her mother died in another shooting last fall.

The 100th and 101st reported homicides of the year happened early Saturday in the Woodlawn neighborhood as 2017 kept pace with the homicide total of 2016, which ended with nearly 800, the most in two decades.

Just before 1 a.m., two people in hooded sweatshirts opened fire into a crowd at a party in the 6500 block of South Drexel, hitting 20-year-old Lance A. Jefferson in the face and torso; and 37-year-old Samuel D. Head in the chest, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Jefferson, of the Washington Park neighborhood; and Head, who lived on the same block as the shooting, died at the scene, authorities said. Additionally, a 29-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the thigh and was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. No one was in custody for the shooting.
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By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

A South Side man was ordered held without bail Tuesday in the murder of his friend, Julian Miller, and brothers Emmanuel Camacho and Filogonio Rivera-Camacho, killed in an apparent shootout after the friends went to the siblings’ Brighton Park apartment to steal marijuana, Cook County prosecutors said.

Torrence Reese, 18, who also was wounded in the Feb. 15 incident, ended up shooting his high school classmate, who told him about the pot Camacho and Rivera-Camacho sold from their apartment in the 3900 block of South Albany, prosecutors said.

That friend also told Reese the brothers kept guns at their residence, Assistant State’s Attorney Holly Grosshans said in court Tuesday.

On the afternoon of the triple murder, Reese went to the brothers’ place with his friend and anther pal, the 19-year-old Miller, to buy 2 ounces of marijuana for $400, Grosshans said.
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By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to three years in prison for an accidental shooting that left 15-year-old Mario Venegas Jr. dead last year in a home in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Orlando Gonzalez pleaded guilty Friday to causing child endangerment and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to Cook County court records.

Venegas, 15, was with Gonzalez and a 17-year-old boy inside a home in the 2700 block of West Evergreen on the afternoon of Aug. 5, 2016, authorities said at the time.

The 17-year-old was handling a gun, which belonged to Gonzalez, when it accidentally discharged and shot Venegas in the head, authorities said.
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A 21-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Anthony “Lil Dogg’ Shorter, who was shot on Thanksgiving Day last year in the West Side Austin neighborhood, and died of his wounds just over two weeks later.

Tyrie Malik Williams was charged last week with one count each of murder and aggravated battery with discharge of a firearm, according to Chicago Police.

Shorter, 32, and a 35-year-old man were talking to Williams about 11:45 p.m. Nov. 24, 2016, in the 1600 block of North Latrobe when an argument began and Williams pulled out a handgun and fired shots, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Shorter was struck in the chest, abdomen and leg; and was taken to Stroger Hospital, where he died at 2:22 a.m. Monday, Dec. 12, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He lived about three blocks away from where he was shot.

The older man was shot in the leg and was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where his condition was stabilized.

Williams was denied bond at a hearing Thursday, and will next appear in court on March 15.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

George Washington High School student Jose Rosas was killed in a drive-by shooting that left another man hurt early Sunday just a block from his home in the East Side neighborhood on the Far South Side.

The two 18-year-olds were getting into a parked vehicle about 1:20 a.m. in the 10900 block of South Mackinaw when a silver Chevrolet Malibu drove by and someone inside fired shots in their direction, according to Chicago Police.

Rosas was shot in the back, and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 2:27 a.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. He lived about a block away from the shooting scene.

The other man suffered a laceration to his left ear, thought to be cause by shattered glass from the vehicle, police said. He was taken in good condition to Trinity Hospital.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help his family with funeral expenses.

The page noted that Rosas was on track to graduate from George Washington and attend college.

“He was remarked by all who knew him as a young man who was a leader and a friend who would offer himself to those around him. For those who were closest to him, it’s an understatement to say this is a painful loss. While his life was indeed cut short, his memory will live on in his family and friends who will take him with them wherever they may go,” the page’s author wrote.

Set up on Thursday, the page had raised over $2,500 by non Friday.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

It was just about 1 a.m. Saturday when two people in hooded sweatshirts opened fire into a crowd of revelers at a party in the South Side Woodlawn neghborhood, leaving Lance A. Jefferson and Samuel D. Head dead, and a woman wounded.

The fatal shootings pushed the homicide total in the city over 100 in less than two months.

Just before 1 a.m., the suspects, both wearing hoodies, fired shots into a crowd at a party in the 6500 block of South Drexel. The 20-year-old Jefferson was struck in the face and torso; the 37-year-old Head in the chest, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Jefferson, of the Washington Park neighborhood; and Head, who lived on the same block as the shooting, died at the scene, authorities said.

A 29-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the thigh, and was taken in good condition to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. No one was in custody for the shooting as of early Monday.

The men were at least the 100th and 101st homicide victims in Chicago during the first 56 days of 2017, according to Chicago Sun-Times data. Last year, it was only one day earlier when the city topped 100 homicides.

James Morris was shot to death Sunday morning while sitting in a minivan near his home in the North Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

Morris, 23, was in the driver’s seat of a parked minivan in the 1300 block of South Kedzie when a silver car drove slowly by and someone inside opened fire at 10:48 a.m., according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Morris, who lived about two blocks away in the same neighborhood, was shot multiple times and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 11:15 a.m., authorities said.

The silver car headed south on Kedzie after the shooting, police said.

No one was in custody.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire