Homicide Watch Chicago

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Alexis Valdez | Chicago Police

Alexis Valdez, 21, pleaded guilty to murder in the 2013 Christmas attack in the 2500 block of North Kildare Avenue before Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan, according to court records. Valdez was sentenced Friday.

Valdez moved in with his aunt and Silvestre Diaz-Hernandez on the condition Valdez go to school, work and contribute to household expenses, prosecutors said at the time of his arrest. Valdez later stopped working and was asked to move out.

That angered Valdez and he lashed out by attacking Diaz-Hernandez with a hammer, eventually decapitating and dismembering the body.
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Fifteen-year-old Clavonte Eubanks died after being shot early Saturday in a park in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the Far South Side where he lived, according to Chicago Police.

A 15-year-old boy was shot early Saturday in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the Far South Side. | NVP video

At 3:27 a.m., Eubanks was walking through a park in the 2100 block of East 97th Street when he heard gunshots and felt pain in his chest, police said. He then ran to a home in the 2200 block of East 97th Street, where emergency crews were called.

The boy suffered a gunshot wound to the upper-right chest and was taken by emergency crews to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 4:19 a.m., police said. He lived in the same neighborhood where he was shot.

No one was in custody as of Sunday afternoon as Area South detectives investigate.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Fenger High School honor student Willie Woodus was shot and killed Friday evening while walking home from school in the Roseland neighborhood on the Far South Side.

Just after 5 p.m., the 15-year-old was walking in an alley in the 11400 block of South Stewart when a gray Pontiac drove by and someone inside it opened fire, hitting him in the head, chest and abdomen, Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

Police say the boy was shot five times.

Woodus was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the West Pullman neighborhood on the Far South Side.

No one was in custody as Area South detectives investigate.

The boy had been living in Hammond, Indiana, but recently moved back to Chicago to attend school, where he was a freshman honor student at Fenger.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Seventeen-year-old Carlos R. Fitz was killed and a coworker wounded in a Logan Square neighborhood shooting early Friday on the Northwest Side.

Crime scene tape marks off the car in which two men were shot early Friday in Logan Square, leaving one dead, police said. | Network Video Productions

Fitz, the passenger, was shot in the head and neck, and died at the scene, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Northwest Side Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

The 20-year-old man driving was treated and released from Norwegian American Hospital with a hand wound, police said. No one was in custody for the attack as of late Friday morning.

It was the first fatal shooting in the city since Tuesday night, a span of nearly 55 hours that marked Chicago’s longest stretch without a gun homicide so far this year.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By JORDAN OWEN and JEFF MAYES
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Another 10 people died from violence last week in Chicago as Chicago Police Department efforts to curtail violence—after a year in which homicides reached levels not seen in decades—seem to be falling short so far.

One month into the new year, the numbers of shootings and homicides in the city are nearly identical to the first month of 2016.

As of Jan. 31, Chicago had recorded 53 homicides in 2017 — two more than in January 2016, according to a Chicago Sun-Times list compiled using Cook County medical examiner’s and other public records.

The number of shooting victims also remained nearly identical. A total of 292 people were shot last January in 242 incidents. So far this year, just over 300 people have been shot in about 240 incidents.

Both 2016 and 2017 showed a marked increase in violence from January 2015, when there were 29 homicides in Chicago.

Police and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration are implementing several anti-violence initiatives this year, including hiring additional officers, funding economic-growth programs, and providing support and mentorship for young men in violent neighborhoods.
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Marcus Cameron was found shot to death Tuesday night in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side.

Cameron, 22, was found about 7:40 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the head in the 4500 block of South Prairie, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at midnight, the medical examiner’s office said. He lived in the Longwood Manor neighborhood on the South Side.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

By ASHLEE REZIN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Marcus Dante Moore | Hennepin County Sheriff’s Dept.

Marcus Dante Moore, 32, was arrested about 9:40 a.m. Monday on a felony warrant out of Cook County charging assault with a deadly weapon in the death of the 32-year-old Gaines, according to Minneapolis police.

On Wednesday, Moore appeared in court in Hennepin County and waived extradition, agreeing to be sent back to Illinois, said Chuck Laszewski, spokesman for the Hennepin County attorney’s office. It was not known when Moore, of Saint Paul, Minnesota, would come to Cook County.

Gaines was a bartender at a downtown motel who, after finishing a shift on Feb. 7, went with a few colleagues to have a drink at Mother Hubbard’s, according to a lawsuit filed by his family last year.
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By JORDAN OWEN
Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Chris Moore | Illinois Dept. of Corrections

Chris Moore, 59, was found guilty of murder Dec. 12 after a bench trial before Cook County Judge Erica Reddick, according to Cook County court records.

Moore, Coleman and others spent the morning of Feb. 8, 2015, drinking at an acquaintance’s home in the 11300 block of South Parnell Avenue, authorities said at the time.

When the resident “passed out,” Coleman put her coat on to leave with a man she used to date, authorities said.

Moore became upset and told Coleman, “You have been drinking with me all morning and you are going to leave with him, I don’t think so,” authorities said.
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After being shot Sunday evening in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the Northwest Side, Jordi Ibarra died a day later in a hospital.

Ibarra, 23, was found shot in the head at 5:35 p.m. Sunday in the 6200 block of West Grand, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he died at 3:25 p.m. Monday, according to the medical examiner’s office. He lived in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Patrick M. Franklin was found with a fatal gunshot wound Monday afternoon in the South Side Kenwood neighborhood.

Franklin, 19, was found unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the groin about 12:45 p.m. outside a home in the 4600 block of South Woodlawn, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he died at 1:19 p.m., authorities said. He lived in the Douglas neighborhood on the South Side.

No one was in custody for the homicide as of Tuesday morning as Area Central detectives investigate.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire