Gang members looking for rivals mistakenly killed nurse in Little Village, cops say

A tragic case of mistaken identity was the driving factor in the murder of a nurse in Little Village last month, authorities said Thursday.

Frank Aguilar, a 32-year-old who worked at a Misericordia nursing home, was going to visit his family and do laundry — “a normal routine” for him — when he was shot and killed on Nov. 12 by members of the Latin Kings street gang who were likely involved in an ongoing turf war with the Two Six street gang, authorities said.

As he was unloading his laundry, a Jeep Commander drove by and someone inside opened fire, Deputy Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan told reporters Thursday as he detailed the murder charges filed against Armando Lopez in the shooting.

Lopez, 19, was ordered held without bail during his initial hearing Thursday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

“The community needs to be a unified front against gun violence,” Aguilar’s uncle, Joshua Alcazar, told reporters after the hearing, where the family also thanked police for their work on the case.

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Lopez was the driver of the vehicle used in the shooting, prosecutors said, which he had borrowed from his brother-in-law, who is also a documented Latin Kings member.

Prosecutors said Lopez was on bond at the time of the shooting in a separate case in which he was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and had previously been convicted of possession of a weapon when he was 17.

A second suspect, the alleged shooter, has been identified, but has not yet been charged, officials said.

Detectives used cellphone records, private surveillance cameras, police POD cameras and witness statements to track Lopez and the suspected shooter before and after the murder.

The two were looking for rival gang members when they saw Aguilar in the 3700 block of West 32^nd Street, Deenihan said. Prosecutors said Aguilar had no gang connections and his targeting was a case of “mistaken identity.”

Lopez first drove by Aguilar and then made a three-point turn in the street and drove back, prosecutors said. Captured on a neighbor’s surveillance camera was two muzzle flashes and a red laser light as the Jeep drove slowly by Aguilar, who was shot in the right side of his body and in the lower back, prosecutors said.

He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

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Detectives had very little evidence to work with, officials said, noting only two .45-caliber shell casings were recovered and there were no eyewitnesses to the shooting.

Both Deenihan and Gilberto Calderon, captain of the Ogden District where the shooting occurred, credited the Little Village community for providing “invaluable” assistance to police.

“Fear was overcome by the fact that they want this violence to stop in Little Village,” said Calderon, who pointed to the shooting of a 7-year-old girl on Halloween that police say was solved also with the help of concerned neighbors.

Prosecutors said at least one witness with knowledge of the men’s whereabouts that evening came forward after the shooting. Cellphone records also showed Lopez get a call from the suspected shooter and both were recorded on video surveillance at a gas station before the shooting, prosecutors said.

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Surveillance and cellphone records then tracked both to the scene of the shooting and then fleeing later, prosecutors said. The Jeep blew a tire on Interstate 55 later that night and Lopez called a tow truck driver, who also identified both suspects to police.

Lopez was initially taken into custody when officers on patrol tried to stop his car Nov. 15 and he drove away from the stop, leading to a pursuit through city streets and on I-55 that at times topped 100 mph, prosecutors said.

Lopez crashed the vehicle after taking an expressway exit ramp and ran on foot, but was taken into custody hiding behind a building nearby, prosecutors said. He was initially charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding police and was denied bail in that case, as well.

Zaid Abdullah, a private attorney for Lopez, said his client was a lifelong resident of Chicago and was working as a forklift operator. Abdullah said Lopez was “obviously not the shooter” and that prosecutors could only show he was “driving in the area at the time of a shooting.”

Judge David Navarro said he found “substantial evidence” to support the state’s case and ordered Lopez held without bail. Lopez’s next court date was set for Jan. 2.

Aguilar’s fiancee, Lindsey Owens, fought back tears after the hearing as she described him as a man full of dreams who wanted to become an emergency room trauma nurse to help on the “front lines” of violence in Chicago.

“I just want to ask for justice,” Owens said. “For all the dreams he had that will never come true, for all the people he could have helped and for all of us who have had our world cracked open from losing him.”

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