Walter Neely / Photo from Instagram
BY ANGELIQUE WHITE
Homicide Watch Chicago
Walter Neely was an artist who often drew pictures about the violence in Chicago.
Neely, 25, became a victim of the violence when he was fatally shot Aug. 15 in the 3400 block of South Indiana Avenue -- about a block from Chicago Police Headquarters, authorities said.
"A policeman could have been looking out the windows over there and actually see who got shot," LaDonna Coney said. "I want whoever shot my son found because you have to be crazy to walk up on him and shoot him with all those cameras over there. I want them found so they can’t do this to nobody else."
Coney said she her son was a natural artist, and she wanted him to enroll at the Art Institute of Chicago.
“He drew animated characters, and he drew Chicago,” Coney said. "He wasn’t a nine to five guy, and he could really draw with those markers, stencils and charcoal."
Neely had prior success in school and graduated from Phillips Academy High School in Bronzeville a year early, his mother said.
Much like drawing, cooking also came natural to Neely, his mother said.
“I would get meat out and say 'Walter I need you to cook this,' and he would," his mother said. "He loved it! I guess it was meditating for him.
“My son loved to barbecue -- he was a grill chef. He loved links, polishes and fish, he loved to throw fish on the grill and he loved to fry fish. Oh, that boy could fry some fish! That boy fried fish so good you thought you got it at a restaurant!”
He enjoyed cooking for his family, including numerous brothers and sisters.
"Walter was the physical strength of his siblings," Coney said. "He was the shoulders for everyone and he was look up to by everyone."
Neely had two small children, Tiyanna and Trevion, his mother said. He was out getting milk for his daughter when he was shot, said his step-grandmother, Lula Coney.
Neely took a friend with him to get milk, but when the gunfire erupted he ordered his friend to run away, Lula Coney said.
“He told his friend to run the night he got killed," Lula Coney said. "He decided to take the bullet."
“He liked to take care of people. He liked to protect people,” his mother added.
His step-grandmother said the shooting isn't the first time Neely helped others on the street, and recalled a time when he saved a child from a pitbull attack.
“The dog was after the child, but he jumped in and took the biting from the dog instead,” Lula Cooney said. “He has always tried to help people.”
Besides family, Neely had a small group of friends, many of whom he called brothers, his mother said.
"Walter was so loved," LaDonna Coney said. "You’re not going to find anyone that has something bad to say about Walter, he didn’t have any enemies."
As a younger man, Neely pleaded guilty to a 2010 drug charge and was sentenced to probation, which he completed with satisfaction, according to court records. He was currently awaiting trial on a 2013 felony gun charge, according to court records.
“He is an ex offender but he was really on the road to getting himself together," his mother said.
Neely's step-grandmother said he didn't go out at night, and his mother added the night he was killed was the first night he had been outside in four months.
“He didn’t walk the streets like that anymore,” his mother said. “I never thought my son would die on these streets, he was smart and he knew people in the streets."
The Cook County medical examiner's office said Neely died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about 30 minutes later, but his mother said her son died on the street.
“The ambulance didn’t get there in time, he died in the streets. For my son to die in the streets like that ... he was a fighter, he was out there to the very end and he was trying to fight.”
LaDonna Coney said she wished she had spoken with her son right before his death.
“If I could have just said, 'Hold on Walter' or 'What do you want me to do Walter' ... anything.”
Nobody has been charged for the murder. Area Central detectives are investigating.
A prayer vigil and flyer distribution is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 22 at 3510 S. Indiana Ave.
“He was always there for me, always. Now he’s gone, just like that. Its forever changing,” his mother said. But I do believe he’s going to heaven and he’s going to watch over me, he wouldn’t have it no other way.”