Christopher Garcia / Photo from Chicago Police
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN
Chicago Sun-Times
A 26-year-old felon charged in the murder of a rival allegedly admitted to police that he came to victim’s South Side apartment armed with a weapon to help get back items he said the man ripped off from his friend.
Christopher Garcia and others confronted Derrick McIntyre after McIntyre came back to his apartment in the 7800 block of South Coles Avenue following a food run at a corner store Tuesday morning, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Barry Quinn said.
The agitated group told McIntyre, 26, to let them in the apartment to take back some property.
But McIntyre refused, authorities said.
“I’m not gonna let you in my apartment take what you want because my girl and my baby are in there,” McIntyre’s pregnant girlfriend heard him say.
The girlfriend looked through the peephole outside the first floor unit and saw a man holding a gun to McIntyre, Quinn said.
The girlfriend grabbed her phone, called 911 and took her child through the backdoor toward a neighbor’s apartment across the courtyard, Quinn said.
When the girlfriend arrived at the neighbor’s door, she heard gunshots, Quinn said.
She then saw the man she had seen earlier with the gun running across the courtyard without the weapon, Quinn said. She also said she saw two others emerge from the hallway near her front door.
Chicago Police officers responding to the robbery in progress saw 26-year-old Garcia running southbound on Coles Avenue and hopping over a fence as he headed toward an abandoned building, Quinn said.
He was later found hiding underneath a tarp just 1 1/2 blocks from the crime scene. Garcia’s hooded sweatshirt and white knit cap were also in a nearby yard, Quinn said.
McIntyre was discovered near his bathroom floor with seven gunshot wounds to his left hand, wrist, torso, back and chest, Quinn said.
He was later pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County.
Garcia, of the 8000 block of South South Shore Drive, allegedly admitted to police that he had opened fire on McIntyre.
He was also caught on surveillance camera entering the apartment courtyard before the shooting and his right hand tested positive for gunshot residue, Quinn said.
Garcia, who has a 9-year-old child, was ordered held without bond Thursday for first-degree murder, murder while committing another forcible felony and attempted robbery with the discharge of a firearm.
Garcia has previous felony conviction for a possession of a controlled substance and burglary.