CHICAGO — A week after being fired from his food service job at Navy Pier, 36-year-old Raylon East returned to the lake attraction, killed two former co-workers and threw the gun into Lake Michigan, prosecutors said Saturday.
Judge David Kelly called East’s actions a “cold, calculated, premeditated execution” and ordered him held pending trial.
Prosecutors told Kelly that East left his home shortly after noon on Tuesday and, following his usual travel routine, took the CTA to the pier.
Chicago Police Department detectives have created a collection of surveillance videos that show East arriving at the pier around 1 p.m. and walking out several minutes later.
Another pier worker found the two victims, Peter Jennings, 47, and Lamont Johnson, 51, on the floor of an office space adjacent to a loading dock. The men died from several gunshot wounds to the head.
Prosecutors said East worked at the pier for about two years and was disciplined for “multiple acts of aggressive behavior.” However, officials did not provide any reason why East targeted Jennings or Johnson.
Within minutes of discovering the crime scene, pier employees identified East for investigators.
As he left the area after the shootings, East threw an object from the pier into Lake Michigan. Chicago police divers searched that area Thursday and recovered a firearm from the bottom that investigators believe is the murder weapon, prosecutors said.
East turned himself in at the Grand Crossing (3rd) District police station, 7040 South Cottage Grove, on Thursday afternoon, about three hours after CPD released surveillance images of the shooter and asked the public to help find him.
Court records show East was convicted of armed robbery in 2008 and had the gun charge dropped in 2017.
