Update 4:30 p.m. — The victim is identified as Hermilo Beltran of the 4600 block of North Kasson. Police now believe he was killed in a robbery. His wallet was missing, but his phone was found near his body. Beltran was reporting for work as a custodian at Happy Camper.
A 47-year-old man was shot and killed behind a restaurant on the Wrigleyville bar strip Sunday night. The murder is expected to be the second of the year along the popular Clark Street entertainment district.
Police said the victim was standing in an alley on the 3400 block of North Clark when shots were fired around 10:15 p.m. Investigators established a crime scene behind Happy Camper, 3458 North Clark, where the man was found along with a fired bullet. Three shell casings were nearby.
EMS took the man, who lived in Albany Park, to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center with gunshot wounds to his chest and armpit. He was subsequently pronounced dead.
Witnesses reported seeing a silver Mercedes sedan leave the area quickly after shots were fired. Police did not release any suspect descriptions or a motive for the attack.
Area Three detectives are investigating.
Possibly second murder of the year
Sunday’s murder may be the second of the year on Wrigleyville’s famed Clark Street bar strip. Before this year, the most recent murder in Wrigleyville was in 2004.
Sergio Ontiveros, 51, of Victorville, California, was pronounced dead in late January, two weeks after being attacked and falling outside a bar on the 3500 block of North Clark. The Cook County medical examiner has not ruled on the cause and manner of his death. Chicago police continue to list the case as a battery, not a murder.
Police responded to a call of a person down and found Ontiveros lying in the street around 1:20 a.m. on January 17, Officer Steve Rusanov said on the day of the incident. A witness told the officers that an offender approached the victim and punched him, according to Rusanov.
Officers in the Town Hall (19th) Police District’s surveillance camera operations center located footage that showed an apparent fight breaking out and Ontiveros being pushed to the ground, according to CPD radio traffic. The offenders then ran from the scene, the camera operators said.
After Ontiveros was down, other people came by, picked through his pockets, and left the area before cops arrived, the officers said.
Detectives closed Clark Street to vehicles for about two hours after the attack to conduct an investigation, according to an employee of a nearby business.