CHICAGO — One week after being fired from his food service job at Navy Pier, 36-year-old Raylon East returned to the lakefront attraction, murdered two former co-workers, and tossed the gun into Lake Michigan, prosecutors said Saturday.
Calling East’s actions a “cold, calculated, premeditated execution,” Judge David Kelly ordered him detained pending trial.
Prosecutors told Kelly that East left his home shortly after noon on Tuesday and, following his usual commute routine, took the CTA to the pier.
Chicago police detectives built a collection of surveillance videos that allegedly showed East arriving at the pier around 1 p.m. and walking back out several minutes later.
Another pier employee found the two victims, Peter Jennings, 47, and Lamont Johnson, 51, on the floor of an office area adjacent to a loading dock. The men died from single gunshot wounds to their heads.
Prosecutors said East worked at the pier for about two years and had been disciplined for “multiple acts of aggressive behavior.” However, officials did not present any reason for East to have targeted Jennings or Johnson.
Within minutes of discovering the crime scene, pier employees identified East for investigators.
As he left the area after the shootings, East threw an object from the pier into Lake Michigan. Chicago police divers searched that area on Thursday and recovered a firearm from the lakebed that investigators believe is the murder weapon, prosecutors said.
East turned himself in at the Grand Crossing (3rd) District police station, 7040 South Cottage Grove, on Thursday afternoon, about three hours after CPD released surveillance images of the gunman and asked the public to help find him.
Court records show East was convicted of armed robbery in 2008 and had a gun charge dropped in 2017.
