Derick Coopwood / Photo from Chicago Police
BY MICHAEL LANSU
Homicide Watch Chicago Editor
A purported West Side gang member awaiting trial on drug charges stemming from a high-profile 2012 bust was found shot to death early Tuesday in the Humboldt Park community.
Police found 21-year-old Derick D. Coopwood shot multiple times in the 700 block of North Spaulding Avenue about 7:05 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
Coopwood, of the 700 block of North Christiana Avenue, died at Mount Sinai Hospital about two hours later, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
Coopwood was one of nine people arrested in 2012 after police busted an open-air drug market on a West Side street, authorities said.
A spike in shootings and violence near Ohio and Hamlin streets led Narcotics Divisions Officers to begin their investigation of the corner two months ago, police said.
Tied to the Conservative Vice Lord gang, police seized $6,700 in illegal funds and heroin with an estimate street value of $3,000, police said.
Coopwood was initially held on $50,000 bond, but was later released on an I-bond, authorities said. He pleaded guilty to the drug charges in 2012 and was sentenced to community service, according to court records, which indicated he later violated terms of his probation and was sent back to prison.
He was released from the Hill Correctional Center on Sept. 5, 2014, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Nobody has been charged for the murder.
Area North detectives are investigating.
-- Sun-Times Media Wire