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| Patrick Tullis | IDOC |
A man who was sentenced to 60 years in prison for murdering two gay men in Lakeview in 1987 is in police custody, accused of firing a handgun near his Uptown home this morning.
Patrick Tullis, 58, was arrested in the 4700 block of North Beacon around 1 a.m. after residents reported shots fired and a witness identified him as the shooter. A Chicago police spokesperson declined to identify Tullis by name because charges are pending. CWBChicago confirmed his arrest through an established CPD source.
Officially, the police spokesperson said officers responded to Uptown after residents reported shots fired and witnesses provided a description of the gunman. One caller said the offender lived in his building. Officers were then flagged down by a witness who pointed to the man and identified him as the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The man ignored police commands to show his hands and then ran away. He was arrested after a short foot chase. Police found a handgun and an empty ammunition magazine in his possession as well as spent shell casings on the ground nearby, according to the spokesperson.
A source said Tullis told officers that he was firing the gun to celebrate the Fourth of July early.
State records show that Tullis was released early from prison in July 2017 after serving half of a 60-year sentence that he received for killing two gay men in Lakeview.
In April 1989, Tullis was sentenced to 45 years in prison for murder and a consecutive fifteen years for voluntary manslaughter after he pled guilty to killing two gay men over three weeks in 1987. Without the plea deal, Tullis would have faced the death penalty or life in prison at trial, according to an archived Chicago Tribune report.
Tullis, who lived in the 3000 block of North Sheffield at the time, tied 25-year-old John Tolbert’s hands and feet, then strangled him to death with a telephone cord on April 5, 1987, the Tribune said. Tolbert’s body was found in a dumpster on the same block where Tullis lived.
Then, on April 29, 1987, Tullis stabbed 43-year-old Raymondo Hernandez 21 times and dumped his body under the Brown Line tracks at Ashland.
Tullis told prosecutors that he killed the men because they asked him to have sex.
The two men were killed about two months after Tullis was released early from prison after serving 2-1/2 years of a 4-year sentence for aggravated battery. The Tribune reported in 1989 that Tullis had been ordered to serve three extra months in prison during that sentence because he stabbed another inmate who made sexual proposals.
Charges against Tullis for this morning’s firearms incident are pending.
