CHICAGO — After a second man was murdered near the Howard CTA station on Tuesday, Ald. Maria Hadden (49th) said on Facebook that it was “unclear” whether the slaying was related to a murder that occurred just steps away about a week earlier.
But surveillance videos secured by CWBChicago show both murders were targeted, cold-blooded executions. And people familiar with the area believe the murders are linked to drug dealing.
The first murder occurred shortly after midnight on June 17 in the 7600 block of North Paulina.
“A 45-year-old male victim sustained multiple [gunshot wounds] to the body while standing outside,” said a brief media statement issued by the Chicago Police Department about an hour later.
In fact, the man, whom officials have not publicly identified, was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car with the door open when he was executed.
Surveillance video shows the sedan parked near the northwest corner of Paulina and Howard. Its headlights and hazards are on, and the victim sits in the driver’s seat with his feet on the pavement next to the vehicle. (Video link. Discretion is advised.)
The streets look largely unoccupied as the murderer, dressed in a black hoodie, approaches the man’s car from behind. He stops for a moment, puts his hand on a tree for leverage, and peers through the back window of the victim’s car, seemingly to confirm the occupant is the man he wants to kill.
With his target confirmed, the murderer slides around the back side of the victim’s car and opens fire. The victim rises from his seat and falls to the pavement as the gunman backs away, still firing. Police later found 14 shell casings at the scene.
Mortally wounded, the victim rolls on the pavement, coming to a stop on his back in front of his car. At least ten people were in the immediate area of the shooting, some sitting in other cars, others secreted out of view until the shooting began.
Eight nights later and a half-block away, 38-year-old Antoine Williams was flat-out executed in the middle of Howard Street.
On video, with the first murder scene visible in the distance, Williams is seen standing on the sidewalk near an alley around 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Just a few feet away, a woman is getting into a cab. Another woman glides past Williams and crosses the mouth of the alley. (Video link. Discretion is advised.)
She doesn’t seem to notice the man in a black hoodie slipping down the alley behind Williams’ back. That man is a murderer. He stops just short of the mouth of the alley and carefully eyes Williams.
As Williams steps off the curb and begins to cross Howard Street, the killer springs into action. He runs up behind Williams and, smack in the middle of the street, shoots him in the back of the head.
Williams crashes to the pavement. The taxi cab speeds away with its passenger.
As the murderer runs back the way he came, another man bolts past Williams’ fallen body and begins shooting down the alley.
We reported Tuesday morning that Williams was known to local police officers. Late last year, he was arrested on gun and cannabis distribution charges at 7602 North Paulina, the same address where last week’s murder occurred.
“My team and I have been working closely with Chicago Police, CTA, Evanston Police, and [Evanston] Mayor Biss on safety and outreach plans to address both gun violence and drug abuse issues along our shared corridor,” Hadden’s Facebook post said.
So far, no arrests have been announced in connection with the murders.
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