Street Vendor Shot And Killed At Gas Station Near I-57
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A street vendor was shot and killed early Tuesday at a gas station near an exit ramp from Interstate 57 in the Washington Heights neighborhood.
CBS 2's Susanna Song reports the victim, identified by relatives as 23-year-old Terrence Graves, was selling food and newspapers to passing motorists at the intersection of 99th and Halsted Streets, when he was shot shortly before 6 a.m.
He collapsed on the sidewalk outside a BP gas station after he was shot in the head and throat.
Graves worked two jobs to support his fiancée and their 4-year-old daughter. His main job was selling newspapers and fruit on the street.
His mother, Teresa Graves, showed up at the gas station not long after police arrived.
Her thoughts turned to her granddaughter, who had not yet been told her father had been slain.
"I don't want to break it to her," she said. "Now she's got to grow up without a dad. He was a man to that baby, and now she's got to grow up without him."
Terrence Graves regularly worked the corner of 99th and Halsted over the past year-and-a-half.
"I talked to him this morning. I hang out with him. He's more than a worker to me, he's more of a friend," said his supervisor, Pete Kasbohm. "He was fun, he was a fun guy, always laughing, joking around with everybody."
Fellow vendor Sean Mayberry estimated he heard 17 gunshots as he was working near the same intersection.
"I hit the ground, get up, see a guy running through the alley, walk back over there, he was still on the ground," Mayberry said. "It could have been me."
Kasbohm said he believes Graves had a confrontation with someone a couple days ago.
"I guess they came back, and they wanted to end it, because they shot him more than once," he said.
Kasbohm said the dispute might have been over something as simple as claiming the spot where Graves sold newspapers.
Police were searching for two suspects seen running away down an alley after the shooting.
Detectives cordoned off the north entrance to the gas station after the shooting. Several yellow evidence markers were placed on the ground near the victim's body, possibly to mark where bullets or shell casings were found.
