Man found shot, killed during fire inside Chicago South Side home
A 47-year-old man was found shot to death Saturday morning inside a burning home in the East Hyde Park neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.
Neighbors said they heard the commotion from the fire, but they had no idea there'd been a shooting inside the home.
"I am a light sleeper. I heard some unusual noise," Christopher Hague said.
The noise got him out of bed, but smoke got him out the door.
"That's when I saw billowing smoke coming out of my neighbor's, what I think to be a bedroom, and called 911, and the Fire Department responded right away," he said.
Just before 6:30 a.m., a townhome in the 4900 block of South Cornell Avenue was on fire.
"I don't understand how a fire could spread throughout the house so fast," Judith Robinson Baugher said.
Two doors down, Baugher watched firefighters get to work as she worried for her neighbor.
"Then I find out later on that there's a body in there, and I didn't realize it was my neighbor. They tell me that he was shot in the head," she said.
The fire was shocking enough, but no one on Cornell Avenue expected to lose a neighbor.
"It's scary. This is an unfolding situation," Hague said.
"For one thing, I hope they find who did it," Baugher said.
The victim has been identified as 47-year-old Jarrell Anthony Boyd, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.
"He's a very sweet man from what I know," Hague said.
"I can't picture anybody doing it. He seemed to be liked by everybody that I know," Baugher said.
Neighbors believe the man lived alone, and loved his car.
"He was always working on his car in the garage," Baugher said.
"He has a quite nice car. He has like an orange Lamborghini, and that was not there," Hague said.
Neighbors noticed the car was missing after the fire.
Hours before the fire, but less than a mile away, police said the driver of an orange Lamborghini crashed on Lake Shore Drive near 50th Street. Police would not confirm if there's a connection.
Cornell Avenue was shut down for much of the morning, but police left the scene before noon. Area 1 detectives were investigating. No one was in custody Saturday afternoon.
