51-year-old man found shot to death near his home in Morgan Park identified as Paul J. King

Jeff Mayes — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 16:15:29 -0500

Police cordon off the Morgan Park block where a 51-year-old man was shot to death early Thursday. | Network Video Productions

The Cook County medical examiner's office on Tuesday confirmed what many in the Morgan Park community already knew: 51-year-old Paul J. King was shot and killed last Thursday on his Far South Side block.

Officers found King lying on a sidewalk in the 1300 block of West 108th Place about 1:20 a.m. Thursday with gunshot wounds to the chest and back, according to police and the medical examiner’s office. He was dead at the scene.

An officer at the scene said King lived on the block, and a neighbor said he was shot outside his house. According to the medical examiner’s office, King lived a few blocks over, in the 1200 block of West 109th Street.

The neighbor, who declined to give his name, said he was woken up by four to five gunshots, and mistook them for knocks on his front door.

He didn’t know King well, but would wave to him almost every day.

“It’s crazy,” said the neighbor, who spoke outside the home he’s owned on the block for eight years. “You speak to someone one day, and then the next day you see him facedown in blood.”

He has been thinking about selling his house after recently paying it off. The shooting early Thursday made it a done deal, he said.

—Chicago Sun-Times Wire

Paul J. King | Homicide Watch Chicago

51-year-old man found shot to death near his home in Morgan Park identified as Paul J. King