South Side man featured in ‘Chicagoland’ documentary killed

A South Side man whose transformational story was featured in the CNN documentary “Chicagoland” was killed early Thursday, a family member said.

Family learned about Lee McCullum III’s death in the early morning hours Thursday, the young man’s grandfather, George McCullum, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“I’m devastated. It’s horrible,” said Liz Dozier, who’d been McCullum’s principal at Fenger High School on the South Side. “This can’t be our new normal.”

Dozier said she was awakened about 6 a.m. by a text from McCullum’s father. The two then spoke by phone.

“He was obviously very emotional, as any parent would be,” said Dozier, who most recently spoke to her former student last fall.

Chicago police found the 22-year-old man unresponsive on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head at 12:37 a.m. in the 500 block of West 126th Street. A spokeswoman with the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed McCullum’s identity. McCullum, of 11400 block of South Yale, was pronounced dead at 1:22 a.m., according to the medical examiner’s office.

George McCullum said late Thursday morning that the young man’s father was at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

“I loved him and I’m going to miss his smile,” said an aunt, Shronda McCullum, 43.

Lee McCullum was portrayed in the 2014 CNN documentary as a kid who had turned his life around, from street thug to student leader, with plans for college.

“He was a great kid,” Dozier said. “Everyone really liked him. He was funny, really personable. He had a good heart and people were attracted to that.”

In August 2014, McCullum was shot twice in the leg shortly after leaving his grandfather’s home in Roseland, family said at the time. McCullum was on his way to a job at a Wendy’s restaurant, where he still worked when he died, family said.