Ian Armstrong / Photo from Chicago Police
BY LEEANN SHELTON
Sun-Times Media
A Rogers Park man awaiting trial on gun charges was ordered held without bond Monday after authorities said DNA linked him to a unrelated 2013 attack where a man was fatally shot 11 times at close range while sleeping.
Ian Armstrong, 29, was charged with first-degree murder for the May 25, 2013, shooting that killed Gregory Dixon in the 1400 block of East 52nd Street in the Kenwood neighborhood, authorities said.
Dixon, 29, and a woman were sleeping in a bedroom inside a 7th-floor apartment when Armstrong and another suspect rang the buzzer, said Assistant State's Attorney Robert Mack.
Both suspects were masked and carrying loaded firearms, Mack said.
The person who lived at the apartment could not make out what was being said over the intercom, but buzzed the gunman into the building anyway, Mack said.
The tenant initially opened the apartment door, but then tried to slam it shut when he saw the two masked men rushing toward him, according to Mack, who said the armed attackers then pushed their way inside and went into the bedroom where Dixon sleeping.
Dixon was shot 11 times at close range in the head and chest, authorities said. Dixon, who lived on the block, died at the scene, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
The woman sleeping next to Dixon said she saw the shooters enter and leave the room, Mack said. Security cameras also captured the men entering the building and heading upstairs.
Investigators found bullets, shell casings and a trail of fresh blood drops going from the bedroom to the entrance of the apartment, Mack said.
Just over an hour after the shooting, Armstrong arrived at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn looking for treatment for a gunshot wound to his left hand, Mack said.
While at the hospital, Armstrong washed a black substance off his hand against a nurse’s orders and refused to tell Oak Lawn police how he was shot, said Mack, who added Armstrong left the hospital 17 minutes after arriving.
Authorities got a search warrant to collect DNA from Armstrong after tests determined the trail of blood drops were not from Dixon, Mack said. Nobody else was injured.
Armstrong’s DNA matched the trail of blood found at the scene and he was charged with murder, Mack said. The second suspect has not been charged.
On Monday, Judge Laura Sullivan ordered Armstrong held without bond.
Armstrong, of the 1200 block of West Loyola Avenue, was already being held in the Cook County Jail on a $50,000 bond stemming from an Oct. 18 unrelated arrest for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to court records.
He will be back in court on the murder charge Nov. 18.