A suburban man has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal Thanksgiving Day slaying of a man in Garfield Ridge, a killing prosecutors say stemmed from suspicions that the victim was pulling on car doors in the neighborhood.
Chicago police were dispatched to the 5100 block of South Luna Avenue shortly after midnight on November 27 after someone found Paul Kalec, 27, lying unresponsive in the street. He was transported to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
A witness told investigators that a man approached Kalec on foot, pulled out a handgun, and fired repeatedly before fleeing the scene, police said. As CWB Chicago reported at the time, cops recovered a firearm and nine shell casings at the scene. That weapon was later determined to be the gun used to kill Kalec and investigators linked it to Negron, a CPD report said.
In the hours after the shooting, CPD said detectives were questioning a “person of interest,” but no charges were announced at the time.
This week, Judge Deidre Dyer ordered 31-year-old Richard Negron detained in the case on a charge of first-degree murder.
According to Dyer’s detention order, prosecutors said Negron was captured on video and identified by a witness as the person who confronted and shot Kalec. Prosecutors said Negron believed Kalec was pulling on door handles of parked cars in the neighborhood, intending to steal things.
Negron shot Kalec nine times, even after he fell to the ground, Dyer said in her detention order, noting that police found no stolen items in Kalec’s possession and adding that Kalec was not armed. She called Negron’s response to his suspicions about Kalec “grossly disproportionate.”
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