Three people were shot, including a man who died after he suffered dozens of bullet wounds, during an apparent ambush as he was released from the Cook County Jail on electronic monitoring Saturday night, according to Chicago police.
Fifty-nine shell casings littered the 2700 block of West 27th Street in Little Village — across the street from the jail — around 8:50 p.m. The 31-year-old man was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:25 p.m., according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
A police report identified the man, known locally as a rapper, as Londre Sylvester, though the medical examiner’s office said it had not notified next of kin of his death Sunday. The police report said Sylvester suffered as many as 64 bullet wounds to his head and other parts of his body, however a full autopsy report detailing his injuries won’t be released for weeks.
A 60-year-old woman who was with him was shot in the knee, and she was in good condition at Stroger Hospital, police said. A Cook County sheriff’s office spokesman declined to comment on the shooting “out of an abundance of caution,” saying he did not want to interfere with the homicide investigation. Attempts to reach the 60-year-old woman who was shot were unsuccessful.
A second woman, a 30-year-old who was walking in the area at the time, suffered a graze wound to her mouth, according to a police report. She was said to be in good condition when taken to Mount Sinai Hospital.
The suspects reentered their vehicles and fled the scene in different directions, the police report said. Chicago police learned there were surveillance cameras in the area to review for evidence.
“It appears Sylvester was the intended target while (the women) were inadvertently struck,” the police report states.
Sylvester had “just been released” from custody and was fitted for electronic monitoring “as a condition of his bail,” the police report said. He and the 60-year-old woman were walking “to an awaiting vehicle when several unknown (suspects) exited two separate vehicles and all began to shoot in Sylvester’s direction, striking him numerous times,” the police report said.
Late last month, prosecutors hit Sylvester with a petition for violation of bail bond for violating the conditions of his release in a 2020 felony gun case.
On July 1, a judge ordered Sylvester held on $50,000 bail. According to court records, Sylvester was able to post the required $5,000 bail on Friday
This was not the first time such a seemingly orchestrated attack occurred outside the jail or its neighboring courthouse.
On March 6, 2017, a 23-year-old man who beat a murder case was shot and killed minutes after leaving the jail. Kamari Belmont was released on $100,000 bail — after his friend posted the necessary $10,000 to get him out of lockup — while he was being held on remaining robbery charges.
Belmont was a few blocks from the jail on California Avenue when a white SUV pulled up to his car, and someone from the SUV opened fire, striking Belmont several times and killing him, police have said.
Belmont had been held in the jail on murder and robbery charges after, authorities contend, he shot a man during a robbery in 2015 and robbed someone else a few hours later. The man who authorities believed Belmont shot died weeks later.
But Cook County prosecutors dropped the murder charges at the end of January 2017 after allowing too much time to elapse under the state’s speedy trial statute, according to court records and Belmont’s lawyer. The robbery charges remained, however.
Two weeks after Belmont was killed, a 21-year-old man suffered six gunshot wounds to the groin area on March 20, 2017, as he was walking to the Leighton Criminal Court Building, which is next to the jail. Someone from a white van opened fire. The 21-year-old was struck by gunfire, and he was taken to Mount Sinai in critical condition.
The man who was shot in the groin had a history of misdemeanor arrests but oddly wasn’t due in court the day he was shot. At the time, his lawyer said she didn’t know why he was going to the courthouse that day.
On Aug. 18, 2017, 28-year-old Kenneth Williams was shot and killed a few blocks away from the courthouse after an appearance in which he pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving on a revoked or suspended license, according to police and court records.
Police have said Williams apparently got into an argument with someone as he left the courthouse. He was in an SUV with a 26-year-old woman afterward, and they made it to about 31st and Rockwell streets when someone in another vehicle opened fire, striking Williams — who later died at Mount Sinai.
*story by The Chicago Tribune
