CHICAGO — A man convicted of a shooting that left a woman dead a few years ago is back in jail, accused of murdering a man near the Howard CTA station earlier this year. Judge William Fahy detained 27-year-old John Parker as a public safety threat after prosecutors detailed the allegations in court this week.
Surveillance video of the June 17 murder obtained by CWBChicago showed the victim, Terrance Allen, 46, sitting in the driver’s seat of a car on the northwest corner of Paulina and Howard shortly after midnight. The car’s headlights and hazards were on as Allen sat with his feet on the pavement next to the vehicle. (Video link. Discretion is advised.)
The streets looked largely unoccupied as the murderer, dressed in a black hoodie, approached Allen’s car from behind. The gunman stopped for a moment, put his hand on a tree for leverage, and peered through the back window of Allen’s car, seemingly to confirm the occupant was the man he wanted to kill.
With his target confirmed, the murderer slid around the back side of Allen’s car and opened fire. Allen rose from his seat and fell to the pavement as the gunman backed away, still firing. Police later found 14 shell casings at the scene.
Mortally wounded, Allen rolled on the pavement, coming to a stop on his back in front of his car. The video showed that, while the streets appeared empty, 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.
Chicago police officers arrested Parker at the Cook County jail on Wednesday to face murder charges in Allen’s death.
Parker has been in the jail since late July after cops allegedly caught him carrying a loaded firearm in the 1600 block of West Jonquil Terrace while wearing a ski mask, according to court records. He’s charged with Class X armed habitual criminal.
He also completed parole in May for a 2015 shooting that left a woman dead.
In that shooting, prosecutors said Parker and another man were trying to shoot the passenger in a car in the 1500 block of West Morse when they unintentionally shot the car’s driver instead. The victim, 42-year-old Carla Martinez, was paralyzed from the neck down and lost her legs to complications from injuries she suffered when her car crashed after the shooting, officials said. Martinez died from her injuries in April 2020, nearly five years after the shooting.
Parker pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of attempted murder in exchange for an eight-year sentence from Judge Joanne Rosado, according to court records.
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