Updated: 19-year-old Evanston man shot dead near ETHS
November 30, 2012
Update, 12:30 p.m. Friday:
Murray graduated from Evanston Township High School in 2011, District 202 Superintendent Eric Witherspoon said in a community notice this morning.
ETHS families have been notified of Murray's death by email and phone, according to Witherspoon's statement. The school is offering its students grief counseling with no appointments necessary today.
Original story:
A 19-year-old Evanston man was shot and killed Thursday night near Evanston Township High School.
The shooting occurred at 6:15 p.m. in the 1800 block of Brown Avenue, according to a news release. While investigating reports of shots fired on Brown Avenue, Evanston Police found Evanston resident Justin Murray wounded.
Murray was transported to Evanston Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 7 p.m.
EPD is investigating the case and had no suspects in custody as of Thursday night.
Murray's death comes less than two months after another Evanston teenager, 14-year-old Dajae Coleman, was shot and killed while walking home from a party. A 20-year-old man mistook Coleman for another man and was charged with first-degree murder.
EPD Cmdr. Jay Parrott did not provide any information beyond the release Thursday night.
— Patrick Svitek
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4th person shot in about two years less than two blocks away from my home, three shot on the same block (brown) have to love the recent increase in rental properties and influx of section 8 housing. Not to mention Evanston police who are more worried about the speed limit and cell phone use while driving. Early this summer it took the EPD about 15 minutes to response to a call I made of a man being shot, this is after the three men screamed and argued for over 20 minutes to the point that it woke me at 2 am while in my house.
It wasn’t the best area when I bought the house ten years ago, but there were definitely less rental properties and more older established family in the area. They were not angels by any means but the worse was a fist fight or two. Guns laws, keeping Chicagoan and it surrounding suburban neighbors safe.
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The amount of rental property and available Section 8 housing in Evanston must be curtailed by Mayor Tisdahl if she wants to keep her job. We can't just let anyone who has a pulse and can make a $300 monthly rental payment move into our community. Evanston is headed in the wrong direction and i can assure you that property owners won't tolerate much more of this.
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Dear Concerned Citizen,
I understand that you want to keep your community and your city safe. We as human beings prize the privilege of being able to walk, live, and raise children in an atmosphere of safety and security. So with that said, I hope you can forgive me for a bit of venting.
As a nation, we have an endemic, problematic tendency to disregard and hide our societal problems, to conveniently compartmentalize them and pass them along to someone else to solve. But in order for us to move forward, I think we in all our disparate parties, affiliations, and groups need to come together and face the unenviable task of having to accept that we can't run away from these issues forever, in the name of handing them over to the next generation. I desperately want us to work on dropping this "not my problem" mantra, or else, as these problems compound in the face of growing populations, we will be consumed.
So Tisdahl limits Section 8 and rental housing in Evanston. These people will just go elsewhere. Evanston's problem will become Chicago's problem. And then Chicago, in turn, will figure out some solution that's anything but, something that cooks the books, boxes up those damn people with problems to where they belong dammit, the Southside, but does nothing to attack the long term necessity of dealing with those problems crippling those people.
Yeah, I know, we as fairly powerless individuals can't deal with every grand societal plague. But what infuriates me is our general priority to cage and paint camouflage on all those elephants in the room, and then forget about them afterwards, whether the elephant is named Poverty or Mental Health. We can keep our own lives squeaky clean and avoid even the slightest eyesore. And then we congratulate ourselves and maintain the illusion that somehow, we deserve everything that we have because of our virtue and work ethic (not saying that those aren't part of the equation). Those other folk, we mutter under our breath that they are lazier, genetically worse. They are environmental pollutants, drags on our system, and what are they doing in my community, dammit.
We forget to thank luck. And we don't even acknowledge our pervasive, systemic problems. Until we ourselves are eventually affected.
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Michael Reply:
November 30th, 2012 at 11:55 am
I'm fairly certain you're talking past the previous two commenters. Obviously, keeping impoverished and/or violently criminal elements out of Evanston would not end violent crime or poverty. What it would do is reduce poverty and violent crime IN EVANSTON, which is what I think those two are after.
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A young man has been shot and his friends and family are grieving. I can't believe that so soon after this tragedy people are talking about real estate and city politics. Those are not trivial issues, but please have some decency and save these comments for later. Imagine if it were your kid.
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Far from trivial if MY five kids where playing in the back yard at the time the young man (who knows hwat he was into) was shot. No doubt life shuold be valued, but the topics being discussed impact others much younger who often get caught up in the cross fire of unlawful use of firearms
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Please do not encourage Tisdahl, or the city council for that matter, to limit rentals to families receiving housing subsidies. There are many law-abiding families who receive government assistance of some sort or another right here in our community. No matter the economic status of the person (not his/her family) responsible for this violent act lets not call it anything but what it is, tragic
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Another person murdered just blocks from the epicenter of ETHS, where literally thousands of our young people gather each day to get an education. A young man shot and killed during the dinner hour, when many of our kids are still out and about in the neighborhood. Mr. Nice Guy, I am with you. I live in the neighborhood and also have precious children that I am concerned about. Every house on the block NEEDS to make it known that violence like this cannot and will not be tolerated. Problems with a certain house or a tenant? The nuisance tenant act in Evanston was resourceful last year in evicting a family who was bringing violence and drugs into the neighborhood. The police worked tirelessly to get them out within a 2 month period. Call CONSTANTLY!!!! Also, police SHOULD enforce traffic laws and speed limits as well. The way people drive down Brown, Grey and Hovland like they are in the Indy 500 is dangerous for our kids; more stops and more tickets can cut down on the people who don't care about the community enough even to slow down, put down their cell phones, and care for their neighbors. Problems in Section 8 housing? I believe that they people can be evicted if their enough documented complaints. Block clubs should be formed, and people should unite. I thank God for the people who have established homes in the neighborhood and who keep these homes maintained and watch out for each other. Let's try to build that kind of community, no matter who lives in each house. The 5th ward is what it is...let's make it better. My heart aches for the family of this young man. Hope he's the last one.
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When are we ALL going to wake-up, open our eyes & ears to see & listen to what's going on in your neighborhoods? Look out of your windows see who is walking down your streets & alleys. You know who belongs in your neighborhood. Most of you can tell a gang banger from the neighborhood from a kid from just down the block. STOP complaining about the police, HELP them by calling them when you spot a stranger in your neighborhood that doesn't belong there. Stop being afraid to call before the shots are fired instead of after you hear the shots that may have ended the life of one of your own family. It's really strange that after someone get's killed......NOBODY SEEN NOTHING!!!!! You all have to wake up & start thinking & doing something to protect your neighbors & your own loved ones. This may sound strange BUT YOUR SILENCE MAY RESULT IN ANOTHER KILLING & IT JUST MIGHT BE YOUR KID!
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