Cicero Man, Gerardo Campos, Charged In Murder Of Lifelong Bridgeport Resident Alva Besst, Who Was Killed Driving To The Grocery
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Cicero man, Gerardo Campos, is charged with first-degree murder in the February slaying of 68-year-old Alva Besst, a lifelong Bridgeport resident who was shot and killed while driving to the grocery store.
Police said Campos, 26, was arrested Thursday evening in Cicero, after he was identified as the gunman who shot Besst on Feb. 16, as he was driving near 31st and Halsted. He was due to appear in bond court on Sunday.
Besst was just on his way to the grocery store at the time. Police said he was not the intended target in the shooting.
Besst was hit in the head by a stray bullet while driving his gold Lincoln Town Car on 31st Street near Halsted.
A person with knowledge of the investigation said individuals in two different cars were shooting at each other. Besst was caught in the crossfire. Bullets went through his back windshield.
After he was shot, the lifelong Bridgeport resident hit a snowbank. About three minutes after a dispatch report of the shooting went over the air, an officer assigned to work at a nearby movie location, less than a mile away from the shooting scene, said, "We're over here on movie detail. Is that victim an older male white gentleman?"
The dispatcher said the victim was in his 60s.
The officer continued:
"That individual literally just left from over here. We just talked to him. He was on his way to the grocery store. I'm assuming it's the same individual. We're gonna be on scene for another couple hours at least over, if detectives or the paper car needs any info from us."
Besst was taken to a hospital in critical condition, where he later died.