Gang member charged with 2013 fatal shooting of Alexander Lagunas in Little Village

Jeff Mayes — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 16:29:29 -0600

By RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times

Ruddy Miguel | Chicago Police

Alexander Lagunas thought he was being greeted by a fellow Two-Six gang member when a silver Chevy Tahoe pulled up with Ruddy Miguel inside.

But when Miguel rolled down the window and flashed a Two-Six sign at the intersection of 31st Street and Pulaski Road on June 17, 2013, he was just bluffing, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.

Miguel, a member of the rival Latin Kings, pointed a gun at Lagunas' car and pulled the trigger seven times while yelling "King Love," Assistant State's Attorney April Gonzales said.

Lagunas, 18, died at Mount Sinai Hospital a day later.

A 22-year-old woman, who was a friend of Lagunas' girlfriend, was also shot in the abdomen while she sat in the backseat of Lagunas' car, Gonzales said. She survived. Lagunas' girlfriend, who was in the front passenger seat, also survived.

Less than 10 days later, a search warrant was executed at Miguel's home on an unrelated matter. There, investigators found a .22-caliber long rifle that matched the shell casings from the crime scene and bullet from Lagunas' body, Gonzales said.

Several witnesses identified Miguel and surveillance videos show the Chevy Tahoe at the crime scene, Gonzales said. Miguel also allegedly admitted what he did to two people.

Judge James Brown ordered Miguel held without bail Wednesday, but he asked what took so long in charging him.

Gonzales explained that there was a delay in the ballistics testing.

Miguel, 23, also uses the alias Mosies Padilla and in some court documents, his name is spelled "Rudy."

Miguel has a 2014 conviction for defacing a firearm and a DUI from last year.

Miguel, a cement mixer, graduated from Clemente High School, an assistant public defender said.

Two more men shot over the weekend die, death toll rises to 8

Sun-Times Media Wire — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 09:24:49 -0500

Two men critically wounded in weekend shootings died Monday, raising the death toll for 2013’s most violent weekend to eight. At least 39 other people were wounded in shootings across the city, authorities said.

The most recent fatality stemmed from a drive-by shooting early Monday in the West Side Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Luis Santana, 21, and another man were shot about 1 a.m. while sitting in a parked vehicle in the 1100 block of North Campbell Avenue, according to police and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

Two gunmen on motorcycles pulled up and fired at the vehicle, police said. Santana, of the 1900 block of West Ogden Avenue, was shot in the head, according to the medical examiner’s office. He was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, where he died at 1:15 p.m. The other man, also 21, suffered a graze wound to the buttocks.

Another man wounded over the weekend -- 18-year-old Alexander Lagunas -- died just after 10 a.m. Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital. He and a woman were shot exiting a Jeep about 12:30 a.m. Sunday in the 4000 block of West 31st Street, in the Southwest Side Little Village neighborhood.

The woman, 22, was in good condition with a gunshot wound to the hip.

They were among 8 people killed and at least 39 people hurt in separate shootings across the city since Friday evening. The wounded range in age from 15 to 40.

“I had a family from my parish tell me recently that their 10-year-old son didn’t want to come back to Chicago from vacation because of the violence,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Englewood, which is about a mile from the site of one of the shootings.

Friends and family gathered Sunday outside the Humboldt Park home of Kevin Rivera to sign a poster and light candles to remember the 16-year-old. He was killed late Saturday when a gunman on a bicycle shot Rivera as he walked in an alley not far from his home on the 1500 block of North Keystone. He collapsed down the block from where he was shot about 11:45 p.m.

Earlier Saturday, about 10:50 p.m., Ricardo Herrera, 21, was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in the Little Village neighborhood when a gunman opened fire in the 2500 block of South Ridgeway Avenue. Herrera, of the 2400 block of South Marshall Boulevard, was dead at the scene.

A few minutes after midnight Sunday, 40-year-old Todd Wood, of the 8100 block of South St. Lawrence Avenue, was killed and three others were wounded when a gunman walked up to the open door of the club in the 900 block of East 79th Street in the Chatham neighborhood and opened fire. The men had argued outside the club before the attack.

About an hour later, Jamal Jones, 19, was discovered on a sidewalk in the 7400 block of South Parnell Avenue with gunshot wounds to the shoulder and chest, police said. Jones, of the 8800 block of South Yale Avenue, died about an hour later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Cortez Wilberton, 31, of the 200 block of South Lavergne Avenue, was fatally shot about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The shooting happened in the 200 block of South Keeler Avenue in the West Garfield Park neighborhood. A woman was also grazed in the cheek.

The first homicide of the weekend happened about 11 p.m. Friday in the 5500 block of West Quincy Street in the Austin neighborhood when McGregory Porter, 24, was fatally shot in the eye and another man was shot in the abdomen during an altercation, authorities said.

The weekend’s youngest shooting victim was a 15-year-old boy wounded in the right arm when a shooter opened fire at him and two other men Saturday afternoon in the Southwest Side Chicago Lawn neighborhood.

A 19-year-old man was also shot in the right leg and a 23-year-old man was shot in the back, police and fire officials said. All three were being treated at area hospitals in serious or critical condition.

In addition to the 8 dead and 39 who were wounded by gunfire over the weekend, Chicago Police shot and killed two teenage boys and a 21-year-old man, in addition to wounding a 16-year-old boy who swung at an officer with a fence picket, police said.

Alexander Lagunas | Homicide Watch Chicago

Gang member charged with 2013 fatal shooting of Alexander Lagunas in Little Village

Two more men shot over the weekend die, death toll rises to 8