Monte Tillman / Photo from Facebook
BY SUSAN DU
Homicide Watch Chicago
Joliet-born Monte Tillman moved around the country in his youth, but he was always drawn to the culture and community of Chicago, family said.
Tillman, 33, was shot in the torso Monday afternoon in the 5200 block of West Lake Street in the Austin neighborhood, authorities said. He died about an hour later at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital.
Tillman's cousin, the Rev. Ezra Tillman of First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Flint, Mich., said Monte Tillman got involved in Chicago's gang culture and the family was "hurt but not shocked" to learn of his death.
"He was clear that was what his world was to him. In the circle he was in, the people he had around, I guess he had love and support," Ezra Tillman said. "He felt he was safe."
"The reality is if you're liked, you're also disliked," Ezra Tillman said.
As a young teen, Monte Tillman moved to Alabama with his grandmother. He spent a year going to school with his cousin, Ezra Tillman said.
The two cousins spent a lot of time at their grandmother's house, contended for the affection of a mutual crush and ran in the fields and played in the woods like "real southern guys," Ezra Tillman said.
Yet Monte Tillman yearned for Chicago and his family, Ezra Tillman said. He found comfort in his family and friends.
"He was a loving, passionate person, definitely a mild-mannered fellow," Ezra Tillman said. "He was the one to just sit and enjoy watching everyone else being loud and obnoxious and cracking jokes at family functions."
Ezra Tillman recalled a conversation he had with Monte Tillman at a relative's funeral about his lifestyle in Chicago. Ezra Tillman expressed concern his cousin was becoming too embedded in the city's gang culture.
"I was talking to him about being in the church, actually having Christ be a part of his life, if he was thinking about getting out of Chicago," Ezra Tillman said. "He didn't give any distinctive answer to say yes, so I felt as if he was trapped in that environment of not knowing 'Where would I go, what would I do?'"
Ezra Tillman believes his cousin was a victim of circumstance and environment.
He said he noticed certain warning signs that Monte Tillman was falling in with the wrong people. Monte Tillman would post photos on Facebook of himself posing with money in his hand, quotes implying a carpe diem philosophy that suggested "he wasn't really looking so far as future goals and dreams," Ezra Tillman said.
"Those types of things I know would breed greed, breed a street lifestyle potentially, bring about people who would set you up," Ezra Tillman said. "But he was flamboyant in that regard, in his dress, how he carried himself."
Ezra Tillman said he is less concerned about other members of the Tillman family in Chicago.
"If it can happen to someone else's family it can happen to your," he said. "[Monte Tillman] was a good person at heart. His personality would never reflect the ideas of a street life. His demeanor was peaceable. His attitude was respectful."