A man from Alsip has been charged with the fatal shooting of a 33-year-old man in the South Chicago neighborhood, police said.
Brandon Ewing, 24, of the 3700 block of West 119th Street in the south suburb, is accused of shooting Kevin Sanders around 11:10 p.m. Friday in a courtyard between buildings in the 8700 block of South Burley Avenue on the Far South Side, police said.
Sanders suffered several gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at Advocate Trinity Medical Center around midnight Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. His address was listed as 8900 block of South Mackinaw Avenue.
Prosecutors said that Ewing and Sanders had got into an argument inside the hallway. A witness tried to calm Ewing down, but a short time later the witness saw him with a weapon in his hand.
Sanders exited the building and began to walk towards Ewing who had placed the gun in his waistband. The two began to exchange words again and according to witnesses, Ewing pulled out a gun and fired several shots into Sanders' lower body, prosecutors said.
Sanders fell to the ground and then Ewing stood over him and fired more shots, prosecutors said.
The shooting drew a crowd of angry people out onto the street, where they loudly called for retribution against the man suspected of the killing. Some demanded Ewing to come out of the apartment where he was hiding, prosecutors said.
Police were called to the scene and found Ewing hiding under a bed in an apartment. A semi-automatic handgun was found in the stove of the same apartment, prosecutors said.
Ewing admitted to police that he fired the weapon more than once and that he was outside with Sanders, prosecutors said.
Today Ewing limped into court in a hospital gown and at one point lifted his leg to show Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil his bandaged right thigh. His attorney, Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek said Ewing shot Sanders in self defense in what essentially was "a shootout."
"This is a case where it is better to be tried by 12 than to be carried by six," Placek told the judge.
Prosecutors said the location of the shell casings found at the scene did not corroborate Ewing's version of events.