Prosecutors say a man and a juvenile, both serving time in state youth centers for violent crimes, drove the CTA from the South Side to Boystown in the middle of the night of Feb. 11 and then left on a gruesome crime spree that left two men dead within an hour and more victims targeted before dawn.
The case came together after Chicago police detectives painstakingly collected and reviewed surveillance footage from CTA stations, businesses and surveillance cameras around the city, piecing together a minute-by-minute timeline that followed the couple from the moment they left a West 79th Street apartment building to their final carjacking on the Far South Side.
Marquese Hill, 18, and Marshawn Sanders, 17, traveled from the 1400 block of West 79th Street to Boystown in the early morning hours of Feb. 11 before robbing and hijacking multiple victims, killing Darwin Tirado in Lakeview and Damon Kellum in Oakland, according to a detention file provided by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. A third person who accompanied them from the South Side has not been charged in the Feb. 11 attack and appears to have separated from the couple before the violence began.
Video surveillance shows the trio leaving the apartment complex at 1:47 a.m. on Feb. 11. They boarded a bus and transferred to the CTA Red Line, heading north to Belmont. After they left, cameras followed them as they wandered through Lakeview, east along Belmont Avenue toward the lakefront and then north and back east to Halsted Street, prosecutors said.
At 3:54 a.m., Charlie’s Chicago turned on the lights and sent customers home for the night. Darwin Tirado, 22, and a companion were leaving the long-running bar at 3726 North Broadway. They walked toward their companion’s Hyundai Sonata, which was parked nearby in the 700 block of West Waveland Avenue. Tirado sat in the passenger seat while his companion got behind the wheel.
At that point, Hill and Sanders allegedly approached from behind and told the men not to look back or yell and handed over their wallets and keys.
Hill opened the driver’s door and ordered Tirado’s companion out, prosecutors said. When Tirado began turning toward the robbers, Sanders allegedly fired a shot that entered Tirado’s back, exited through his chest and lodged in his right arm.
Moments later, a Chicago Fire Department ambulance drove by. Tirado’s companion tried to wave him down. The ambulance crew slowed down, but continued. Police records show the EMS team realized an armed carjacking was in progress, and they radioed police.
Meanwhile, Sanders pulled Tirado’s body from the car and the two hijackers drove away in the Hyundai with Sanders behind the wheel, prosecutors said.
Chicago police officers arrived and found Tirado on the street while his companion performed life-saving measures. Tirado was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where he died less than an hour later.
Surveillance cameras tracked the stolen Hyundai south to the 3600 block of South Lake Park Avenue, where it remained for several minutes. At 4:42 a.m., Damon Kellum, 45, was in the driver’s seat of his Nissan Altima when the Hyundai pulled alongside, blocking his path.
The video allegedly showed someone dressed similarly to Hill approaching Kellum’s driver’s door as the Hyundai wrapped up the Nissan. The Nissan shot forward and hit the Hyundai. Moments later, prosecutors say Hill got into the front passenger seat of the Nissan and Sanders slid behind the wheel. They drove away in Kellum’s car.
A witness later found Kellum lying on the ground next to the Hyundai that was taken in Boystown. He was shot in the left eye and pronounced dead at the scene.
Cameras continued to capture the Nissan as it drove through the city. At 4:52 a.m. it arrived at a BP gas station at 4248 South Wentworth Avenue. Hill exited the Nissan wearing a camouflage ski mask and carrying a handgun, prosecutors said. The mask matched the one Sanders had previously worn. Hill approached a 70-year-old man standing next to a red Lexus SUV and pointed the gun at him, prosecutors said. The victim raised his hands, backed away and ran away.
Sanders got out of the Nissan and ran toward the Lexus, with a video showing what prosecutors described as a red substance on his right shoe. The pair were unable to move the Lexus, so they returned to the Nissan and drove away, according to the charges.
At 5:10 a.m., cameras showed the Nissan at 87th Street and Lafayette Avenue, where the hijackers blocked a 38-year-old driver who was waiting at a red light. They exited the Nissan, pointed a gun at him and took his Chevrolet Malibu. Police later recovered the Malibu in Gary, Indiana.
Four days after the murders, Chicago police arrested Hill for shoplifting near North Avenue and Clybourn Avenue in Lincoln Park. Officers said he was wearing a black Nike hoodie similar to the one seen in surveillance footage of the crime spree. A shopping bag in his possession reportedly contained Asics shoes and black Nike Tech pants that also resembled the clothing he wore that evening.
Prosecutors say two Senn High School employees identified Hill from CTA surveillance footage, as did others who knew him. When officers arrested Hill in connection with the killings on Thursday, he tried to flee with crutches and struck an officer in the face and body with one of the crutches and his fist.
Police also arrested Sanders on Thursday. The cellphone he was carrying showed a location history that placed him at the scene of both murders, all the carjackings and on the CTA bus and Red Line train before the attack began, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors also tied up Hill, Sanders and the third person who left the apartment complex with them before the crime expanded into an earlier violent carjacking in West Rogers Park. On Jan. 10, a man in the 7500 block of North Claremont Avenue reversed his SUV into his garage with his wife in the passenger seat. On their way outside, three men walked through the open garage door.
Hill punched the woman in the face, causing her to fall onto snow-clearing equipment and then to the ground, prosecutors said. He demanded her phone. She didn’t have it. Hill then pistol-whipped the man in the right temple and demanded his keys, phone, wallet and passcode, according to the charges. As the man was removing items from his pockets, Hill punched him in the temple and left eye, knocking him to the ground. The group fled in the couple’s Toyota Highlander.
The male victim of the Jan. 10 carjacking identified Hill in a photo lineup five days after the attack. However, Hill was not charged at that time. According to prosecutors, the victim was unable to identify anyone in two consecutive lineups, and his wife was unable to identify anyone in photo arrays.
Hill’s recent history includes another arrest just weeks before the murders. On December 14, police arrested him in the 4900 block of West Hull Street in Skokie after allegedly finding him driving a stolen Hyundai with three grams of suspected crack cocaine. Court records show prosecutors dropped those charges on Feb. 9, about 36 hours before the Feb. 11 crime spree began. The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for information on why the charges were dropped.
On Saturday, Judge James Costello ordered both Hill and Sanders held pending trial. They now face multiple charges of first-degree murder, carjacking and armed robbery.
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