A 23-year-old man already jailed in connection with a Rogers Park carjacking was denied bail Thursday after Cook County prosecutors accused him of being the gunman in a fatal Lincoln Square shooting that occurred the same day.
About 7 a.m. Dec. 1, Julius Flowers was recorded on surveillance video getting out of a silver four-door sedan and approaching 59-year-old Rae Park as he stood next to a Honda minivan in an alley behind his house in the 2600 block of West Catalpa Avenue, prosecutors said.
Park first put his hands in the air when Flowers came at him with a gun, then reached into his pocket and handed the younger man $20, prosecutors said.
As Park tried to walk toward the open door of the minivan, the two began to wrestle for the gun, prosecutors said. Flowers managed to break away and stepped back several feet before shooting the older man in the chest before fleeing in the silver car, prosecutors said.
Park later died at Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston.
When Flowers was charged this week with armed robbery and murder in Park’s shooting, he was already being held without bail on charges of vehicular hijacking and armed robbery in a carjacking that happened an hour earlier, court records show.
In that case, prosecutors said Flowers was in the driver’s seat of a silver Kia sedan when he and an accomplice pulled up to a man standing next to a Chevrolet Malibu in the 7000 block of North California Avenue.
Flowers’ accomplice got out and pointed a gun at the man, who gave him the car keys, prosecutors said. Flowers then drove up to next to the man and demanded his cell phone before driving off in the Kia while the accomplice drove away in the stolen Malibu, prosecutors said.
The Malibu was found unoccupied a short time later in Evanston by police who located a fingerprint on the driver’s side window that matched Flowers, prosecutors said.
Flowers was taken into custody Dec. 10 by an Illinois State Police trooper who saw him run from a stolen red Mazda sedan after it crashed on the Dan Ryan Expressway, prosecutors said.
In a video-recorded interview with detectives, Flowers first denied shooting Park but then allegedly claimed the gun went off during the struggle with Park, which prosecutors said was contradicted by the video.
Flowers is also currently facing a felony weapons charge and a misdemeanor assault charge in separate cases in Lake County, prosecutors said.
Flowers is the father of a 2-year-old, lives with his parents and works in warehouses, an assistant public defender said.
Judge Kelly McCarthy set Flowers’ next court date for Jan. 12.
