A Venezuelan migrant is charged with first-degree murder, accused of stalking a group of boys through Canaryville and opening fire without provocation, killing a 15-year-old and wounding a 12-year-old in a chilling daylight ambush.
Daniel Navas Maiver, 19, was arrested within hours of the attack. Cops allegedly found the murder weapon in his bedroom and noted that he was wearing some of the same “distinctive” clothing worn during the crime.
Prosecutors said 15-year-old Alex Durante and five other boys were socializing last Thursday afternoon, walking and talking near 47th and Union. None of them had guns and prosecutors said there’s no evidence that any of them ever threatened or confronted Navas Maiver.
Instead, prosecutors allege, Navas Maiver borrowed his aunt’s SUV, picked up his girlfriend and a student at Tilden High School, and began driving around the neighborhood. Around 3:45 p.m., he parked near the school and told the Tilden student to follow him on foot, prosecutors said in a detention petition.
They began following the boys.
Video showed Navas Maiver clutching his waistband as he shadowed them down the block. An off-duty Chicago cop happened to drive by and later reported seeing Navas Maiver following the group while manipulating what appeared to be a gun in his waistband. Moments later, cameras captured Navas Maiver slipping into a vacant lot, raising a pistol, and firing repeatedly at the unsuspecting group, the detention petition said.
Home security video obtained by Chicago Spectator recorded the gunfire and showed the two injured victims running from the vacant lot.
Sent in video of the shooting of 2 kids, ages 15 and 12, near 47th and Union in #Chicago#ChicagoScanner https://t.co/HLpqmLWKDC pic.twitter.com/9Gk5ivpyan
— The Chicago Spectator (@ChiSpectator) August 29, 2025
The boys scattered, but two didn’t escape. One bullet pierced Alex’s backside and exited through his abdomen. He died at Comer Children’s Hospital. The 12-year-old took a bullet to the chest but survived. Prosecutors said his condition has stabilized.
The off-duty officer heard the shots and saw Navas Maiver sprinting away. Prosecutors said video showed Navas Maiver getting into his aunt’s SUV and driving away. More cameras tracked him home, where police would soon arrest him, still wearing the same distinctive hat and pants caught on video, according to the allegations. Inside his bedroom, detectives found the gunman’s sweatshirt on his bed and a 9mm handgun stashed in a dresser drawer. Ballistics confirmed it was the murder weapon, the detention petition said.
Navas Maiver allegedly admitted to pulling the trigger and pointed himself out in surveillance clips.
In their detention petition, prosecutors said Navas Maiver “was born in Venezuela and should be considered a flight risk.”
Cook County Judge Susana Ortiz ordered him detained.
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
