A 32-year-old parolee has been charged in a shooting that claimed the life a man and a left a teenage girl wounded in Lawndale.
Kevell Chester was captured on video opening fire on a car as it drove in the 4700 block of West Arthington Street shortly after 2 a.m. May 25, Cook County prosecutors said Friday.
The driver of the car, Charles Rice, 31, was struck multiple times, and the 16-year-old girl who was in the passenger seat was struck in her right leg and suffered a graze wound to her left arm, prosecutors said.
Rice was later pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago police said.
Just before he was killed, Rice saw a woman standing in the street and offered her a ride, prosecutors said. The woman refused and started to walk away.
As Rice continued to drive, Chester, who was standing on the sidewalk, fired a barrage of bullets, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors didn’t say what led to the shooting or what Rice’s relationship to the teenage victim was.
Investigators found both 9-mm and .380-caliber shell casings at the scene, which indicated there was a second shooter involved, prosecutors said. The other person was not captured surveillance videos.
Chester was seen on video going back and forth from an SUV that was parked on the street, prosecutors said. When police arrived at the scene, the SUV was still parked and an officer’s body-worn camera recorded the license plate, which showed the car was registered to Chester, prosecutors said.
Chester was taken into custody on Thursday and allegedly identified himself in the videos. The woman who was offered a ride by Rice also identified Chester in a photo array as a person she saw on the street immediately before the shooting, prosecutors said.
Chester has a lengthy criminal history, largely for drug convictions, prosecutors said.
He was paroled a month before the shooting after serving a sentence for a drug charge, state records show.
Chester has two children and lives with his girlfriend and sometimes his sister, an assistant public defender said.
Judge Arthur Wesley Willis ordered Chester held without bail for Rice’s murder.
Chester is expected back in court on Sept. 2.
