No bail for pair in fatal West Chatham shooting, high-speed chase

The alleged gunman in a West Chatham shooting that left one man dead and another wounded has been charged with murder, along with his getaway driver.

Anthony Bell, 22, and Antonio Henderson, 31, were ordered held without bail by Judge Michael Clancy at a hearing Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Henderson was behind the wheel of a black minivan that pulled up alongside 24-year-old Warren Strenger and two friends, as the trio were on a lunch break and were walking through the parking lot of a strip mall April 17 in the 200 block of West 87th Street, Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said.

Bell was in the passenger seat. He jumped out and pointed a gun at the three men.

Henderson asked Strenger, “Don’t I know you? Where are you from?” Santini said. And when Strenger replied “No,” Bell opened fire.

The three men sprinted away. Strenger fell face-first to the ground after he was hit. A second man, age 35, was struck in the right arm.

Police officers nearby witnessed the shooting and drove their cruiser toward the minivan, lights and sirens activated. Bell climbed back in the minivan and Henderson took off “at a high rate of speed,” pulling the van onto the Dan Ryan Expressway at the 87th Street on-ramp, Santini said.

The chase continued on the expressway, where Henderson sideswiped a truck and crashed into the center median. Henderson and Bell took off running, and were captured soon after by police. Police found the gun used to shoot Strenger inside the van, Santini said.

Strenger was taken to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, where doctors pronounced him dead. The Cook County Medical Examiner determined Strenger died of multiple gunshot wounds and has ruled the death a homicide. The man wounded in the arm was treated at St. Bernard Hospital.