After a father and son were murdered while grappling with a gunman who robbed their Little Village jewelry store on Saturday evening, parts of the internet lit up with wild theories. Some posts blamed federal immigration agents for a supposedly slow police response, saying local residents are afraid to call 911 because of ICE. Other posts even claimed the agents committed the murders themselves and escaped in an SUV with Texas plates.
But surveillance video and police dispatch records show those viral claims aren’t true.
On Sunday morning, a Chicago Tribune reporter posted on X that “Witnesses say their lifeless bodies lay on the ground in the middle of the street for several minutes before anyone called the police.”
The post added a quote from local resident Dolores Castañeda: “The community doesn’t trust the CPD—even less now that we’re being terrorized by ICE, and they seem to be protecting the agents instead of the community.”
By Monday morning, the post had more than 294,000 views, more than 1,500 likes, and 528 retweets—many from journalists and high-follower accounts.
“People are so scared of ICE that they won’t even call 911 to report a murder,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote in a retweet that has gained than 122,500 views.
But surveillance footage and dispatch audio call the post’s claims into question.
Video posted by Chicago Critter shows the killer getting out of a white car and walking into the family’s store in the 3800 block of West 26th Street at 5:48 p.m. Just 14 seconds later, he runs out, chased by one of the victims. The second victim follows and the three men run into the street as drivers try to avoid hitting them.
The shooting begins seconds later, and at 5:49 p.m., the shooter dives back into his white car and speeds away.
As CWBChicago reported Sunday morning, 911 calls flooded in at that exact moment—5:49 p.m.—from multiple witnesses describing people shot, cars fleeing, and people firing guns in the street. There’s no indication that the victims were left lying there for any length of time before witnesses called for help.
And, for the sake of argument, if people were too afraid to call 911 because of ICE, why did so many calls come in at once? Did everyone suddenly get over that fear in the same second, or were they all reacting to the same violent scene that was unfolding in front of them?
Another rumor gaining traction shows a white SUV with Texas plates and suggests the people inside were ICE agents who killed the two victims.
“It’s very strange that a Truck with Texas license plate was seen leaving after the shooting. Is this ICE killing our people?” Baltazar Enriquez Sanchez asked in his Facebook post, which has been shared more than 400 times on Facebook and countless times as a screenshot on Twitter.
Unfortunately for those buying into that rumor, there was an error in CPD’s initial press release about the murders. The agency said the gunman “entered a white SUV and fled,” but surveillance video makes it clear that the killer’s vehicle wasn’t an SUV at all, and the vehicle seen in the Facebook post looks nothing like the car the killer used.
One thing that isn’t a rumor: Cook County Crime Stoppers has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
Anyone with tips can call 1-800-535-STOP or email [email protected]. Anonymous tipsters receive a code number to claim the reward if their information proves valuable.
