Chicago police are working to determine if the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old woman in Albany Park on Monday is connected to another shooting in the neighborhood this month in which an on-duty fireman was shot.
Stephanie Brooks was pronounced dead in an apartment on the 4400 block of North Francisco shortly after a masked man shot her in the chest as he tried to force his way into the unit, according to information from CPD and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Brooks is survived by three children.
A friend of Brooks’ who also tried to force the gunman out of the apartment was not injured.
Police have determined that Brooks has connections with one of two men who are charged with shooting the firefighter as CFD worked to extinguish a car fire in the 3600 block of West Wilson on Feb. 2.
Investigators believe the car fire was intentionally set by gang members who wanted to draw rivals into an ambush. A home used in narcotics trafficking is located near the Wilson shooting scene, police have said.
Prosecutors charged 29-year-old Hollis Williams of the 4400 block of North Francisco with multiple felonies in connection with the firefighter’s shooting on Feb. 8. Williams continues to be held without bail on the charges.
A second man, 29-year-old Jermaine White of the 3400 block of West Eastwood, was also charged with the shooting. Authorities subsequently rejected White’s parole in a domestic violence case and he has been in Stateville Correctional Center since Feb. 14, according to state records.
WGN reported on Tuesday that police “are anticipating a very high level of retaliation from the murder of Brooks.”
