Shooter killed man in 2015 for selling weed on his ‘territory’: prosecutors

Chicago Police arrested 26-year-old Deandre Thomas on Friday afternoon on an Austin neighborhood sidewalk on the West Side.

Almost three years earlier and less than three blocks away, the then 23-year-old shot another man dead because the victim was selling marijuana on his “territory” on the West Side, Cook County prosecutors said Sunday at his bond court hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

The shooting happened just before midnight on July 15, 2015, when two men who sold drugs with Thomas walked up to Dimarkiss Scott, 23, in the 1300 block of North Lockwood, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Christina Kye. A fight started after they told Scott, who lived in that block, that he was selling weed on their turf. That’s when Thomas walked up to the group and opened fire.

Thomas shot Scott four times before he ran away, Kye said. Scott, who wasn’t armed and wasn’t holding anything when he was shot, was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, where he was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office found he died of multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and ruled his death a homicide.

Officers recovered five .40 caliber shell casings and a fired bullet from the scene, Kye said.

A month later, officers tracked down a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun, Kye said. The owner of the gun told police he bought it from Thomas for $300 in early August. Ballistic analysis matched the gun with fired shell casings from the scene a month earlier.

Cook County Associate Judge Mary C. Marubio on Sunday ordered Thomas, of the Homan Square neighborhood, held with no bail as he faces a first-degree murder charge in the fatal shooting.

He’s next scheduled to appear in court on Monday.