A 16-year-old reportedly shot and killed six people — mostly “complete strangers” — over a nine month period in 2020, according to prosecutors in Chicago.
As the coronavirus pandemic kept the public at large worried and stuck at home, Antonio Reyes allegedly engaged in a series of mostly random shootings on the streets of Chicago.
According to the New York Times, one of the victims had stopped to put gas in their car, and another was on the way to buy a puppy for his three children when the alleged killer struck.
Reyes, who was 16 when he began his alleged attacks, is 21 now and was arrested in December 2020. At the time, he was charged with one of the murders, but further investigations have led prosecutors to connect him with five other killings and four attempted murders.
“It appears he was just doing it for the thrill of it — to murder people, repeatedly,” Cook County state attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke said during a Thursday press conference.
Police reportedly linked Reyes to the other murders using shell casings recovered from a .40-caliber handgun, posts he made on social media, and other collected evidence.
Reyes was also charged with trying to stab his cellmate in jail to death, according to Burke.
He has since been arraigned on five additional murder charges and four attempted murders, according to the state attorney’s office.
At the time he was charged, he was already being held without bail on the first murder charge related to the killing of Luis Davalos Garcia, which occurred on June 24, 202. He is still awaiting trial for that charge.
Reyes reportedly only had a previous connection to one of his six targets, Damian Duran, whom he allegedly shot during a drug deal on May 1, 2020, prosecutors said.
He reportedly had some connection to the Latin Kings gang, but none of the killings associated with Reyes appear to have any connection to the group’s activities.
“It’s sad to think about a 17-year-old committing serial murders over the course of nine months — how many people were taken,” Burke said.
Reyes allegedly flashed a gang sign during one of the shootings, that of Jose Martinez, 31. Martinez was taking his three young children to buy a puppy when Reyes allegedly drove up to him, flashed the gang sign, drove around a bit more and then shot him.
Three of the attempted murder charges stem from Reyes allegedly trying to shoot the children inside the car, according to the Chicago police.
“This speaks to the level of disregard this offender had toward human life,” Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said at a news briefing on Wednesday. “It’s difficult to comprehend how anyone could easily take someone’s life, especially so many in one year.”
Snelling said police will continue to investigate Reyes to determine if there are any additional victims.
