CPD again asks for public’s help in finding suspected Rogers Park killer

A year after two murders in Rogers Park terrified the North Side neighborhood, the Chicago Police Department announced Tuesday that the trail has gone cold and investigators are once again asking the public for assistance.

“Like so many of our tragic shootings, the senseless killings of Mr. Watts and Mr. Moscowitz remains at the forefront of our thoughts and efforts,” Area North Detectives Cmdr. Robert Cesario said at a news conference Tuesday. “Given that, I’m saddened to report that we’ve exhausted all our active and actionable leads and again are asking for public assistance.”

Eliyahu Moscowitz, an Orthodox Jew, and Douglass Watts, who was gay, were murdered within 36 hours of each other just blocks apart last October, sparking fears of a spree killer bent on committing hate crimes.

Watts, 73, was shot at point blank range the morning of Sept. 30, 2018 as he walked his dog just steps from his home in the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue. Moscowitz, 24, was gunned down on a lakefront path about a day and a half later near Lunt Avenue as he played Pokemon Go on this phone.

Police released surveillance videothat showed the suspected shooter — masked and wearing all black clothing — jogging down an alley and sidewalk just minutes after Watts was shot. At the time, police said the motive behind the shootings remained unknown. Police said they thought the shooter lived in the neighborhood because he left each scene on foot.

A $150,000 reward remains in place for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, Cesario said Tuesday. Anyone with information on the murders was asked to call Area Central detectives at (312) 744-8261.

Two weeks after the fatal shootings, the same gun was used in a drive-by in Lawndale on the West Side, police previously said. Someone used the gun to shoot two men who were stopped in a vehicle at a stoplight shortly before midnight on Oct. 15, 2018, in the 4300 block of West Fifth Avenue. The men, ages 23 and 27, were treated for gunshots to the arm and hand.

The gun was used again several months later on March 28, 2019, on the Near West Side, police said. No one was hit when someone fired shots from a vehicle at three building security guards in the 2300 block of West Jackson Boulevard, according to police.

Ballistic tests showed the same gun was used in all four shootings, although it was unclear how many people had used that same gun, police said.