A Rogers Park man is being questioned in connection with the murder and carjacking of a man in Boystown on February 11 and the separate killing of another victim in the Oakland neighborhood less than an hour later, CWB Chicago has learned. Court records show the murders occurred barely 36 hours after prosecutors dropped a felony case the 18-year-old suspect was facing.
CWB Chicago is not naming the man because he has not yet been charged in connection with the murder and carjacking of Darwin Tirado, 22, shortly before 4 a.m. on February 11 in the 700 block of West Waveland Avenue, or the killing less than an hour later of Damon Kellum, 45, in the 3700 block of South Lake Park Avenue. However, multiple sources say charges are expected to be announced shortly.
We were first to report that Kellum was found in or near Tirado’s hijacked Hyundai Sonata, leading police to quickly link the two crimes. Two additional carjackings followed the murders, and Chicago Police Department sources initially believed those incidents were also connected to the slayings.
According to police, Tirado and another man were sitting inside the Hyundai when two armed carjackers approached, displayed handguns, and demanded the vehicle and the victims’ belongings. The offenders then opened fire, striking Tirdado in the back, and driving away with the Hyundai.
Shortly after 4 a.m., a Chicago Police Department license plate reader detected the stolen Hyundai traveling in the 100 block of West 31st Street, a source said.
About 45 minutes later and roughly two miles away, officers located the Hyundai abandoned in the 3700 block of South Lake Park Avenue after a passerby found Kellum lying unresponsive in or near the vehicle. He had been shot in the head.
In addition to questioning the Rogers Park man, detectives have also been interviewing a juvenile, according to law enforcement sources.
Court records show Skokie police arrested the adult suspect in December after he was allegedly found riding as a passenger in a stolen Hyundai Tucson. He was also accused of possessing three grams of suspected crack cocaine.
Charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor criminal trespass to a vehicle, he was released from custody three days later after appearing before a judge. On the afternoon of February 9, during his fourth court appearance, prosecutors dropped both charges, court records show.
The exact reason for that decision is not clear from the court file. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not reply to an email seeking clarification on Friday afternoon.
Earlier court records show that at a hearing five days before the case was dropped, lab tests on the suspected cocaine, a critical step required to proceed with a drug possession charge, had not come back.
Other records indicate the man had contact with Chicago police as a juvenile, but the extent and nature of those events are not publicly available.
Additional carjackings possible
Police were investigating the possibility that the killers obtained another vehicle after abandoning Tirado’s vehicle on Lake Park: a gray Nissan sedan bearing Colorado license plates. Exactly where they got it was unclear, but around the time officers were discovering Kellum’s body, two carjackers drove the Nissan onto a gas station lot near 43rd Street and Wentworth Avenue and tried to hijack a man who was inside a red Lexus.
The intended victim sped away before the hijackers could take his car. Surveillance video from the gas station provided the police with the best look at the suspects so far: two males of unknown race dressed entirely in black. The passenger was armed and wore a camouflage ski mask.
About 5:15 a.m., the pair struck again, this time near 87th Street and Lafayette Avenue, where they targeted a CTA worker who was heading home after finishing his shift at the nearby Red Line station.
According to a preliminary CPD report, the offenders used the Nissan with Colorado plates to block the CTA employee’s vehicle. They abandoned the Nissan, physically attacked the CTA worker, and robbed him at gunpoint before driving off in his silver 2025 Chevrolet Malibu. EMS transported the victim to St. Bernard Hospital for treatment.
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