Artez McBride / Photo from Facebook
BY SUSAN DU
Homicide Watch Chicago
Artez McBride’s family has some closure now that Darrell Cooper has been charged with murder for allegedly running over McBride with an SUV early Saturday in the Austin neighborhood.
McBride’s mother, Tiffany McBride, said the closure only goes so far. She believes other young men will be safer with Cooper in custody, but is also painfully aware his arrest won’t bring her son back.
“I feel better knowing that he can’t do this to another child,” she said. “I should probably hate this kid, but I have no room in my heart for hate right now. He took my son away from me, but I was blessed to have him for 20 years.”
Artez McBride, 20, was crossing the street in the 0-100 block of South Central Avenue about 12:45 a.m. Saturday when he was intentional hit by an SUV, authorities said. McBride was pronounced dead about two hours later at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
Tiffany McBride said she keeps thinking back to the last conversation she had with her son. They spent all day Friday together, cleaning around the house and talking. They talked about the future, about him getting married and having kids once he finished school and landed a good job.
“It’s kind of ironic because how many parents can say they actually had a conversation like that with their child in the 24 hours of them passing? I can honestly say that Friday night I was happy,” Tiffany McBride said.
An only child, Tiffany McBride remembered her son as a “gentle giant,” “big kid” and “the man of the house.”
As a child, Artez McBride was eager to bring in the groceries and take out the garbage, his mother said. His aunt, Nikita McBride, said he felt a sense of responsibility to the women in the family.
“He’s the one person that I knew loved me unconditionally, and that’s something that you don't often find,” Nikita McBride said of the nephew who often spent weekends with her watching movies or eating junk food.
“He talked a lot. I used to have to pay him to not talk too much,” Nikita McBride said.
Artez McBride studied business at Wright College after graduating from Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School, family said.
He loved playing video games, talk to girls and eat -- particularly potatoes, baked, boiled, fried or smothered, family said.
More than anything, Artez McBride loved his friends, Tiffany McBride said. He met Reggie Jackson in a third grade reading class and Tiffany McBride now considers him a second son, she said.
The two hung out every day after school, attended each other’s family gathering and frequently wandered around the mall talking to girls. One night Jackson got kicked out of his house and Artez McBride took him in and took him shopping for clothes the following day.
“He was no bad person. He was no gangbanger, he didn’t do any of that,” Jackson said. “He always put me on the right stuff, on jobs, on school. He was focused. He was always, ‘We gotta get rich, man.’”
McBride had not been charged with a crime as an adult, according to court records.
The plan was for Jackson to become a lawyer and Artez McBride to continue college so they could get a house and stay together like brothers.
“He was my only friend, the only friend I could trust,” Jackson said. “My grandma just died last week. I didn’t even cry at her funeral. When I heard about Artez, I couldn’t stop crying.”
Cooper, of the 0 - 100 block of North Lorel Avenue, was charged with first-degree murder for McBride’s death. He is being held on $750,000 and will be back in court May 16.