CHICAGO — An eight-time convicted felon, on parole for gun possession, drove to a South Side grocery store and killed a man who had gotten into an argument with a woman he knows, prosecutors said this week.
Video from Food 4 Less, 7030 South Ashland, showed 36-year-old Benjamin Cruz arguing with a woman on November 6, prosecutors said. The woman called Mardy Williams during the argument and Williams drove to the store, according to the state’s court filings.
The woman met with Williams in the lot and then drove to the front of the store while he walked across the lot to confront Cruz, according to the allegations. As Cruz approached his vehicle, Williams pulled a gun, shot him twice, and then fled with the woman, prosecutors said.
Cruz died at the University of Chicago Hospital.
Judge Mary Marubio detained Williams on a charge of first-degree murder, saying the attack was “unprovoked” and noting that Williams is on parole with a “significant background.”
That background includes 2020 convictions for repeated unlawful possession of a weapon and two counts of aggravated battery of a peace officer. He received concurrent seven-year sentences for each charge and was paroled in February, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records. He also received convictions for armed robbery and burglary in 2016, drug possession in 2014, and robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon in 2012.
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