Detectives Locate Vehicle In Slaying Of 16-Year-Old Angie Monroy In Little Village
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago Police said Tuesday they had located the pickup truck involved in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Angie Monroy in the Little Village neighborhood, and were processing it for evidence.
As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reported, Angie is the third recent victim of gun violence in the community – and pressure has been intensifying to get the killers off the streets.
Angie was shot in the head Saturday night while walking home from work. Police said she was walking near 23rd and Rockwell streets when a pickup truck drove past and someone inside started shooting.
Police have said the shooter likely was aiming for someone else.
Angie was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in critical condition, and she died the next day.
Chicago Police Deputy Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said investigators had been able to collect only a little evidence – two shell casings – in the case before locating the vehicle involved on Monday.
"We have located the vehicle, and we're going to process that for evidence, but this is a very difficult case, so we're using video, and we're in the beginning stages, and we're going to do everything we can to bring these offenders to justice," Deenihan said.
Police said the vehicle had been reported stolen, and Deenihan said investigators believe the shooters were likely gang members.
On Tuesday, the police captain overseeing the investigation stopped by the home of the victims' family to let them know that they were pursuing some strong leads.
Meanwhile, loved ones stopped by a memorial to pay tribute to Angie – while another memorial grew less than a mile away inside her family's home.
"I feel like they honestly just took a piece of my heart, because she was my best friend; my other half," said Joselyn Monroy, the victim's sister.
Angie was a sophomore at Benito Juarez High School.
"I have no words to explain like how much of a part she was to our family," said Steven Monroy, Angie's brother.
Police believe the shooters were in a beige pickup truck, Possibly a Toyota. Joselyn had this to say about her sisters killers:
"It was something very cruel; evil," she said. "They don't have a heart."
And the Monroys are not alone in their grief. Deputy Chief Deenihan even noted the shooting bears an eerie similarity to the slaying of 32-year-old Frank Aguilar last month.
"You have a car that's just flying by, and you don't have much evidence, and we have two shell casings," he said.
Aguilar, a nurse at Misericordia Heart of Mercy Hospital, was walking home from work on Nov. 12, when he was shot in the chest in a drive-by shooting outside his sister's home near 32nd and Lawndale in Little Village.
Aguilar was still wearing his scrubs from work at the time. He was carrying laundry and snacks for his niece and nephew.
His family said he called 911 and even gave himself first aid, but later died at Mount Sinai Hospital.
One person has been arrested in Aguilar's death. Police say 19-year-old Armando Lopez was the getaway driver. He has been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
And back on Halloween, a 7-year-old girl named Gisselle Zamago was shot while trick-or-treating with her family on 26th Street.
A 15-year-old boy is being held in juvenile custody on attempted murder and aggravated battery in the shooting that wounded Gisselle.
Police believe all three victims were innocents struck by gang gunfire meant for someone else.
"She's not the first, and that's what makes things even worse," Steven Monroy said.
In response to this latest shooting, police are stepping up both uniformed and plainclothes patrols in Little Village.
Angie's brother Steven is a second-year law-enforcement student in college. His sister's murder has made him only more determined to achieve his dream.
"I want to become a police detective and hopefully do it for her," Steven Monroy said, "because nobody should ever be going through this ever again – nobody."
"I love her, and I'm never going to forget all those memories that we had together, and that I wish we could make more," Joselyn Monroy said. "We could have."
A vigil will be held for Angie on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, police say they have been getting more tips in recent high-profile shootings in the Little Village and Pilsen areas.
The increase in cooperation seems to coincide they say with former police Supt. Eddie Johnson's decision not attend President Donald Trump's recent speech before the International Association of Police Chiefs in Chicago, Puccinelli reported.
