Man charged with murder in hit-and-run that killed 3 men outside South Shore bar
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A man has been charged with intentionally hitting four men with his car, killing three of them, outside a bar in the South Shore neighborhood earlier this month.
Tavis Dunbar, 34, is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 23-year-old Jaylen Ausley, 27-year-old Devonta Vivetter, and 25-year-old Donald Huey. Dunbar is also charged with attempted-murder in connection to the victim who survived.
According to Dunbar's arrest report, he surrendered to police on Monday after witnesses and video footage identified him as the driver who intentionally hit four people outside Jeffery Pub near 71st Street and Jeffery Boulevard on Aug. 14. Ausley, Vivetter, and Huey were killed. A 21-year-old man who was hit survived, but sustained serious injuries to his leg.
In bond court Monday, prosecutors said Dunbar and all four victims had been in the Jeffery Pub, and the victims had gotten into a fight outside. A witness heard someone say to the victims, "I got something for you, you m****rf****rs," before walking to his car.
Surveillance and dashcam videos then showed the car the defendant was driving plow full-speed into the group.
Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan said information from the car's "black box" showed the driver was speeding when he hit the four men. Prosecutors alleged in court Dunbar was driving up to 59 miles per hour when he hit the victims.
"The gas pedal was completely deployed to the ground. Never attempted to tap the brakes when this incident occurred," Deenihan said.
The car used in the attack was recovered just blocks from the scene at 73rd and Jeffrey.
Investigators were able to track the driver to a nearby building after the hit-and-run, and after talking to witnesses at that building, were able to identify Dunbar as the driver, according to Deenihan.
Prosecutors said Dunbar lied to several people about what happened. One person later saw the graphic surveillance video on social media and recognized the car as Dunbar's, prosecutors said.
"The defendant called Witness 5 later that day and asked her to be an alibi witness which she refused to do. When Witness 5 refused to be the defendant's fake alibi witness she, told him that he killed two people," prosecutors said in a proffer. "The defendant responded by saying, 'actually, it's three."
Dunbar turned himself in Monday morning, accompanied by a lawyer, and invoked his right to remain silent, Deenihan said. Detectives have yet to determine a motive for the attack. Jeffery Pub is a Black-owned gay bar, but Deenihan said detectives don't have any evidence that the attack was a hate crime.
Police said, at this point, it appears the attack was random.
Deenihan said Dunbar was inside the bar before the attack, but was not involved in a later fight outside the bar.
"There was no altercation between the defendant and those individuals in the bar. There actually was no altercation in the bar, and out on the street, from the video evidence that we have, it does not appear that the people fighting on the street, that this offender was involved in that either. He went to his vehicle, and then he immediately caused this horrific act," Deenihan said.
Police say the car Dunbar was driving was registered to his cousin, but he drove it often.
At a memorial for her son on Friday, Nichelle Weathers said Ausley was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"Jaylen didn't deserve what happened, and I want to be sure that, no matter what everyone knows, that my son has always been a positive influence on everybody. He's been a positive light," she said.
A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ausley was a mentor at the Gary Comer Youth Center in Greater Grand Crossing, and had dreams of attending an Ivy League grad school.
Huey's sister has said they grew up in South Holland, but he recently moved to California, and had come back to town to visit for his grandmother's birthday at the time he was killed.
"My brother did not deserve that. He didn't," she told CBS 2 last week. "He was like my child. He was the only person that I had left," she said.
A judge ordered Dunbar to be held without bail.
