Saturday’s rampage in Dunning now ranks among the deadliest incidents in the city in the last two decades.
In fact, it was only the fourth time since 2001 that five or more people were killed in one place, according to Chicago police records.
Canaryville, August 2003: Six killed
Salvador Tapia — described by a former girlfriend as “a bomb waiting to explode” — chased, cornered and executed six of his former co-workers and exchanged gunfire with police in an industrial area of Canaryville before being killed by sharpshooting cops.
The scruffy, tattooed, 36-year-old Tapia had a mean streak. He pointed weapons at family members, beat girlfriends and threatened his boss. His friends say he had a short fuse. At work, he was often late, argumentative and eventually fired. Six months later, he was still furious about being terminated from his job of shelving used engine parts at Windy City Core Supply Co., 3918 S. Wallace.
On a hot and humid summer morning, Tapia raced through the brick structure, shooting former co-workers in the head, including the man who fired him, Howard Weiner.
As he stalked through a maze of offices and hundreds of 55-gallon drums holding auto parts, the building’s layout allowed Tapia to “corner” the frightened victims, police said.
Salvador Tapia killed six of his former co-workers at Windy City Supply Co., an auto parts warehouse in an industrial area of Canaryville. Tapia was killed by police.
Associated Press
Greater Grand Crossing, April 2008: Five killed
Five people were robbed and murdered in a home in the 7600 block of South Rhodes. All five were shot in the head execution-style.
The victims were: Donovan Richardson, 24; Anthony Scales Jr., 26; Whitney Flowers, 22; Reginald Walker, 23, and Lakesha Doss, 17.
Three men were eventually charged. Two were found guilty by Cook County juries while the third took a plea deal in exchange for his testimony.
Prosecutors said they went to the home because one of them knew Richardson, who rented the home and was known to keep diamond-studded jewelry, art and nice cars.
Chicago police officers allow investigators dressed in white bodysuits to enter the property in the 7600 block of South Rhodes where victims of gunfire were found in April 2008.
Sun-Times file photo
Gage Park, February 2016: Six killed
The bodies of four adults and two children, ages 10 and 13, were found throughout a bungalow in the 5700 block of South California on Feb. 4 after a friend of Noe Martinez Jr., one of the victims, tipped police that the O’Hare Airport window cleaner hadn’t showed up for his job for two days.
Maria Herminia Martinez, whose body was found in a kneeling position in an upstairs bedroom was shot four times in the head and in each of her hands. Martinez’ 13-year old son, Leonardo Cruz, suffered a dozen knife wounds. Noe Martinez Sr., 62, suffered 42 knife wounds all over his body.
The victims were from three generations of the same family.
Diego Uribe and Jafeth Ramos, his girlfriend, were each charged with six counts of first-degree murder. Their cases are still pending and both remain held at the Cook County Jail.
Police near the scene in the 5700 block of South California on Feb. 4, 2016. Six people — from three generations of the same family — were found dead in a home there.
Sun-Times file
