Homicide Watch Chicago

By ELIZABETH CZAPSKI
Homicide Watch Chicago

When DeAndre Holiday’s family and friends talk about who he was, they all say one thing: He loved football.

As a kid, his father Renee Canady recalled, Holiday would pretend to put football pads on his shoulders and say, “Dad, I’m gonna play, I’m gonna play!”

When he reached fifth grade, Holiday joined the Southside Wolfpack Youth Football Program. He was shy at first, but “he turned out to be one of our most inspirational football players in the program,” Wolfpack coach Ernest Radcliffe said.

Holiday was a leader and a motivator on and off the field, helping carry his team through playoff games and a city championship. Radcliffe remembered a playoff game where, with over 1,000 fans cheering for the Wolfpack, Holiday ran onto the field and made “the biggest hit of all.”
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A shooting Wednesday night in the South Side Chatham neighborhood claimed the lives of Wilteeah Jones, her boyfriend Malik K. Bingham and the couple’s unborn child.

Family members said the couple was returning home from a birthday party for Jones’ grandfather when the shooting occurred.

About 8:15 p.m., officers responded to a shooting in the 7600 block of South Champlain, and found Bingham, 20, at the wheel of a parked car, and Jones on a sidewalk nearby, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Jones, known to friends as Teeah, has not been officially identified by the medical examiner’s office, but family members said she was 20 and expecting her first child, who was also killed. The baby, a girl, was to be named Mileah.
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Tiara Richmond, a 24-year-old transgender woman, was shot to death Tuesday morning in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side. Authorities originally identified the victim as Donnell Richmond.

Family and friends knew her as Tiara Richmond, but she also went by Keke Collier, said LaSaia Wade, an advocate for transgender rights with Brave Space Alliance.

Richmond was in a vehicle with a man at 6:14 a.m. in the 7300 block of South May Street when the man fired shots, Chicago Police said. When officers arrived, they found Richmond lying on the ground nearby with gunshot wounds to her chest, arm and hand.

She was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where she was pronounced dead at 7:03 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. She lived in Englewood.
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Two more men have been charged with the fatal shooting of a 2-year-old Lavontay White and his uncle, Lazarec Collins, an attack that also left a pregnant woman wounded on Valentine’s Day in the North Lawndale neighborhood.

Bond was denied Friday for Doniel Harris, 19, who faces one count of murder, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office.

On Saturday, bond was denied for Jeremy Ellis, 19, charged with murder and attempted murder, the state’s attorney’s office said.

Devon Swan, 26, was ordered held without bond last week after he was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

The three are charged with the shooting deaths of 2-year-old Lavontay and the 26-year-old Collins, authorities said. Collins’ 21-year-old girlfriend, who is 4 months pregnant, was wounded in the attack.

At a press conference Friday, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said he hopes the arrests made in Lavontay’s homicide spark questions by the public.
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A 27-year-old woman has been charged with the murder of pizza delivery driver Michael Newell, who was a family friend and former roommate, in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood on the Southwest Side in December.

Layla Enriquez, 27, and a male co-defendant staged a fake robbery and later shot the 52-year-old Newell while he was working about 8:30 p.m. Dec. 16, 2016, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

The motive is believed to be an insurance policy on Newell’s life that named Enriquez, his former roommate and friend of the family, as beneficiary.

Police were called to the 5100 block of South Long to a report of shots fired and found Newell with a gunshot wound inside his parked car, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said at the time.
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By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

A’Miracle Jones, the premature baby saved by doctors after her mother was fatally shot five months ago in the South Chicago neighborhood, has died, and the death has been ruled a homicide.

A’Miracle died at 7:55 p.m. Thursday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. She was 5 months old.

Family members said she had caught pneumonia and had been placed put on life support. The family ultimately decided to have her taken off life support.

An autopsy Friday found the baby died of complications of prematurity and maternal death due to a gunshot wound, and her death was ruled a homicide, according to the medical examiner’s office.
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Jon Shupe of south suburban Calumet City was fatally shot during an argument Wednesday night in the Morgan Park neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Shupe, 31, was arguing with another person about 8:35 p.m. in the 11400 block of South Ada, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

The other person pulled a gun and shot him in the head and back, authorities said. Shupe was pronounced dead at the scene at 9 p.m.

A person of interest was being questioned in connection with the shooting, but no charges had been filed as of Friday morning as Area South detectives investigate.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Bobbie Jackson was found shot to death Wednesday evening in Altgeld Gardens, the second fatal shooting in three days in the Far South Side nieghborhood.

Officers responded shortly after 7 p.m. to a call of a person shot and found the 44-year-old Jackson lying on the ground and bleeding from the head in the 900 block of East 133rd Street, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Jackson, who lived in the same neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

On Monday, 27-year-old Michael Lawrence-Harrington was killed in a shooting that happened just a block to the north.

The neighborhood’s first shooting this year happened a block west, where two men were seriously wounded last month.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Devell L. Coleman was shot to death while walking Wednesday night just a block from his home in the Brainerd neighborhood on the South Side.

Just before 9 p.m., the 24-year-old Devell Coleman was on a sidewalk in the 9100 block of South Emerald when someone in a dark-colored car fired shots, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Coleman was struck in the head and back, and was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 9:27 p.m., authorities said. He lived bout a block away from the shooting scene.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Willie Shaw was shot to death during an argument early Wednesday in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

The 55-year-old Shaw was arguing with another person at 12:51 a.m. in the 4500 block of South Cottage Grove, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The other person pulled a gun at some point and shot him in the leg.

Shaw was Taken to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the nearby Kenwood neighborhood.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire