Neighbor says slain 19-year-old was sweet and respectful

Safiya Merchant — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:00:16 -0500

Across the street from a playground and the building that used to house Wentworth Elementary School, a memorial sits against a brick wall near a parking lot, commemorating the life of 19-year-old Marcus Rush.

Rush was shot about 7:15 p.m. on Sept. 28 near the intersection of West 70th and South Morgan streets in Englewood. He died a few hours later at Advocate Christ Medical Center, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The memorial—a mess of stuffed bears, empty liquor bottles, smashed tea lights, and posters scrawled with farewells from loved ones—sits across the street from one of the many buildings left behind after the CPS school closings.

Police said Rush had no documented gang affiliations, but did have a prior criminal record. However, to 29-year-old Tasha Henery, he was “just a sweet little boy.”

Henery, who lives in the building next to Rush’s memorial, was one of the neighbors that called 911 the night he was shot.

“I had just came in the house…and I heard the gunshots, and I heard my neighbor say, ‘Go get my momma,’ so that made me run out to check on her and I see him laying there,” Henery said.

Although she said what she knew about the incident was “hearsay,” she thinks Rush got shot across the street, then ran to his car in the nearby lot, where he collapsed.

“And I was talking to him like, ‘Hold on baby, hold on, they coming, they coming’,” Henery said.

According to Henery, Rush would come to the area to see friends. She said he was very sweet and respectful, and had a baby of his own.

Henery, who has six kids herself, said she loves her neighborhood, but does not feel safe anymore after the fatal shooting.

“I’m not threatened by these guys, it’s the other people that come over here,” she said.

Contributing reporting by Jessica Koscielniak

1 dead, 15 wounded in weekend shootings

Sun-Times Media Wire — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 10:18:31 -0500

A man was killed and 15 other people were wounded in shootings across the city since Friday afternoon -- including four people shot along a Safe Passage route near a South Side elementary school.

A 19-year-old man died after he was shot in Englewood Saturday night. He was standing near South Morgan and West 70th streets about 7:15 p.m. when he “heard shots and felt pain,” police and fire officials said.

The man, identified as Marcus Rush of the 2600 block of South Martin Luther King Drive, died at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn at 2:05 a.m., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

The most recent non-fatal shooting happened about 3:45 p.m. Sunday in the 600 block of East 67th Street. A man, believed to be 24, was shot in the right thigh. He was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in “stable” condition, police said.

Four people were shot along a CPS Safe Passage route in the South Side Washington Park neighborhood Friday night. Three men and a teenager were standing on the sidewalk about 11:10 p.m. in the 6000 block of South Indiana Avenue when a dark-colored sedan drove by and someone inside started shooting, police said.

The shooting happened along a Chicago Public Schools Safe Passage route near John Foster Dulles Elementary School, the CPS website said.

Ten other people were shot across the city since Friday afteroon.

Area detectives were investigating all the shootings.

Marcus Rush | Homicide Watch Chicago

Neighbor says slain 19-year-old was sweet and respectful

1 dead, 15 wounded in weekend shootings