A convicted murderer who spent two decades in prison has been charged with another murder after his cohort allegedly shot and killed a 23-year-old man in Logan Square last weekend.
Carlos Coleman, 39, faces a count of first-degree murder in Saturday’s shooting outside the CTA Blue Line station that left Brandon McGhee dead and a 16-year-old wounded.
Coleman’s co-offender allegedly shot at McGhee and the teenager in the 1900 block of North Western Avenue after the victims were asked about their gang affiliation.
McGhee was killed by a bullet that struck his neck, Cook County prosecutors said in court Friday. The teenager was struck multiple times.
Chicago police earlier said the second person wounded was 24.
McGhee and the teen were on their way to the Puerto Rican Day Parade when they stopped at a liquor store along the way.
After leaving, they were approached by Coleman and two unidentified co-offenders who allegedly began asking McGhee and the boy “What you be about?” The question is “a common street phrase meant to ask what gang the victims were in,” prosecutors said.
Neither McGhee nor the boy responded.
Coleman ran forward and tried to punch the teenager twice, but the boy ducked each time, causing Coleman to fall to the ground when the second punch failed to land, prosecutors said,
McGhee and the teen ran when one of Coleman’s accomplices reached to his waistband for a gun and began firing, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the victims’ backs were turned when they were shot. Neither victims had a weapon.
A bullet also shattered the windshield of a couple who was driving on Western Avenue after dropping their granddaughter off at home, narrowly missing the passenger and causing the man driving the car to be cut by glass.
Coleman ran off in a different direction than the two co-offenders, but the pair were recorded by video surveillance cameras.
Neither of Coleman’s co-offenders were in custody as of Friday evening, Chicago police said.
Coleman, of Austin, was convicted of murder in 1998, court records show, but details of the case were not available. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and was released on parole two years ago, according to state records.
Judge Susana Ortiz ordered Coleman held without bail and set his next court date for July 17.
