Man slain in front of daughter working on school project about West Side restaurant

A 29-year-old man was gunned down in front of his daughter Wednesday evening outside a West Side restaurant, where she worked on a school project about Black-owned businesses, according to Chicago police.

The brutal attack happened about 6:40 p.m. right after Terrance Pearson, his girlfriend, his daughter and another young relative, left the TNT Rooftop Restaurant, 5405 W. Madison Ave.

A white Nissan pulled up alongside them, and gunmen jumped out and fired at Pearson at least 25 times, according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times.

The assailants got back into the Nissan, made a U-turn and sped off down Madison, leaving Pearson lying on the sidewalk, his daughter’s pink poster and art supplies tangled among bullet fragments, blood spatter, and Pearson’s wallet and key fob, the report said.

Pearson died about an hour later, at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. An autopsy Thursday determined Pearson died of multiple gunshot wounds and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

No one else was injured.

Pearson was visiting the restaurant because his daughter was interviewing its owner for a school project on Black-owned businesses, according to the report. TNT’s owner declined to comment when reached by a reporter Friday.

The block is lined with small businesses, though some appear to be abandoned. MacArthur’s Restaurant, a popular Austin eatery, is at 5412 W. Madison St.

“People might just assume this is another incident, another sad situation,” Sharon McKennie, 59, a manager at MacArthur’s, told the Sun-Times on Friday. “[We’re] praying for the family of that individual.”

McKennie, preparing for a surge in business for the upcoming Super Bowl and Valentine’s Day, noted MacArthur’s has bulletproof windows.

“We do whatever possible to make our people comfortable,” McKennie said. “And we just pray for everybody’s safety.”

“It’s f------ lawless,” said a business owner who didn’t want to be identified because he feared retaliation. “As summer approaches, I fear for the kids.”

The man wants to see more trade schools on the West Side to help combat the violence.

His doors close at 3 p.m. every day over what he says are safety concerns. “It’s the wild, wild, West,” the owner said. “It’s a damn shame.”

Police have reported no arrests in the case.