Bond denied for 2 charged with murder of officer

Two men were ordered held without bond Saturday for the murder of Chicago Police Officer Clifton Lewis, while Chicago Police brass vowed that anyone else involved will be brought to justice.

Tyrone Clay, 29, of the 5100 block of west Huron, and Edgardo Colon, 34, of the 5600 block of west Grand, were charged with first-degree murder of a peace officer as well as murder while in the commission of an armed robbery.

The two were arrested in little more than a week since the Dec. 29 fatal shooting of Lewis, who was working a second job as a security officer at M & M Quick Foods, 1201 N. Austin. The two appeared in bond court Saturday before Cook County Criminal Court Judge Laura Sullivan.

Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney John Dillon told the judge that Colon was the get-away driver in the convenience store robbery, and that Clay was one of two armed and masked men who burst into the store that evening.

The two were part of a group of at least four suspects believed involved in committing the robbery, during which the suspects hoped to steal more than $10,000 in lottery proceeds, sources said.

Prosecutors said both Colon and Clay gave detectives videotaped statements implicating themselves in Lewis’ murder.

Colon told detectives he heard Clay or the other accomplice say, “He was a f***ing cop. I saw his badge” upon entering the get-away car after the robbery, according to prosecutors.

Later, at a press conference held at the Austin District headquarters where Lewis worked, Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez joined Police Supt. Garry McCarthy and lead detectives to talk about the case.

Neither Alvarez nor McCarthy would comment on the suspect who entered the store with Clay, nor would they comment on a fourth individual who was questioned and released.

While his department felt some relief after the arrests, they will not rest until all suspects who conspired to commit the crime are caught, the superintendent said, confirming that police believe a street gang was involved, but that the motive was robbery and nothing else.

“I’m not sure who are gang members in this particular case, but I do know that this case revolves around Spanish Cobras. And I can assure that group accountability is going to be pursued vigorously and there will be fall-out,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to take care of business with that.”

Deputy Chief Dean Andrews of the department’s Detective Bureau said several weapons have been recovered during the investigation, and are being processed by the crime lab’s forensic unit to determine whether they were used in the robbery. Lewis’ weapon has not yet been recovered, he said.

The family of one of the suspects maintained his innocence.

“My son is innocent,” Clay’s mother, Lovetta Jones, said after the bond hearing. Clay’s family said they don’t believe Clay even knew Colon, and Clay’s mother described her son as mentally slow. “He plays video games all day,” the mother said, adding that her son is not agile enough to have committed the crime, having suffered injuries to his leg in a 2010 car collision that killed a friend.

“They better go get this police shooter before he kills again,” Clay’s mother said.

Clay’s fiancee, Adelina Rodriguez, 26, said Chicago Police burst into the couple’s basement apartment on Thursday and took her and Clay, along with Clay’s childhood friend and that friend’s girlfriend to a police station for questioning. “I had three cops on top of me,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez described Clay as a homebody who was trying to clean up his criminal past. “He’s always at home,” she said. “He didn’t go nowhere that day [of Lewis’ murder].”

Colon’s attorney declined to comment on the case.

Prosecutors said Colon was in a car that was stopped Tuesday for making an improper turn, and police then found a .357-caliber handgun with two live rounds in his car.

Colon was ordered held without bond Friday on the unrelated gun charge. Sources said that traffic stop by tactical officers was the key to solving Lewis’ murder.

Prosecutors said in court Saturday that Colon, Clay and two other “co-offenders” came up with the plan to rob the convenience store. They planned that Colon would drive them to and from M&M Quick Foods and act as a police lookout. Clay and another offender, armed and masked, entered and robbed the store, prosecutors said. It was Clay who obtained the two weapons, they said.

Lewis announced he was a Chicago Police officer and fired a shot before being shot multiple times in the abdomen and three times in the back, prosecutors said. According to sources, one of the robbers opened fire on Lewis with a TEC-9 semiautomatic weapon with a high-capacity clip.

According to prosecutors, a store employee who hid behind a counter and was struck by bullet fragments told police he heard Lewis tell the robbers that he was a police officer before being shot.

After Lewis was shot, Clay took about $670 from the cash register, and the second, unknown offender took Lewis’ service weapon, before the two ran out to a car where Colon was waiting, prosecutors said.

Colon has a lengthy criminal record stretching back to 1997, including convictions for unlawful use of a weapon, burglary, obstruction of justice and the manufacture and delivery of cannabis. When arrested Tuesday, he was on parole for a 2007 home invasion with a firearm, for which he was sentenced to six years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

His co-defendant, Clay, was convicted in 2004 of unlawful use of a weapon and received probation, but was sentenced to 30 months in the state prison system for twice violating probation. He also received six months conditional discharge for cannabis possession in 2011.

Lewis was buried Thursday after a funeral with honors.