Family disputes police claim that man killed while committing robbery

Robert Ward was killed Tuesday night in an Englewood neighborhood shooting that left another man wounded, but the circumstances of the case depend on who you ask.

Chicago Police say it all started when Ward and another man tried to rob two men. But family members say that is not true, and the 23-year-old was attacked in his aunt’s back yard.

Police say that about 8 p.m., Ward and another suspect approached a group of three people in the 1500 block of West 71st Street.

When Ward and his accomplice tried to rob the other men, shots were fired, and Ward was struck in the left side of the body, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said.

But family members say Ward was in the backyard of his aunt’s home when someone ran up to him with a gun and shots were fired. They say Ward knew the other people in the incident and there was no robbery.

Ward was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he died at 8:41 p.m., authorities said. He lived on the same block as the shooting.

A 22-year-old man, who police called a robbery victim, was shot in the leg, and his condition was stabilized at Christ, police said.

Area South detectives were investigating.