More Details About Shooting and Suspect; Overview of Ad Hoc Meeting on Shootings

The latest on the tragic murder of a South Loop a resident (via DNAinfo.com):

Image from DNAinfo

The murder of 45-year-old William Smith, a South Loop resident heading out to get a cup of coffee at 10 a.m. Sunday, was a robbery gone wrong, prosecutors said Tuesday.  

And prosecutors say the killer's old Bears jersey helped tie him to the crime. Smith left his South Loop condo Sunday morning and was walking to Dunkin' Donuts when someone in a dark Hyundai pulled up alongside him near 18th Street and Michigan Avenue, according to prosecutors and a neighbor.

Definitely an unnerving story that hits home - especially as we've made a similar walk to get coffee many times.

DNAinfo also has a good overview of the impromptu community meeting about the recent spat of shootings in and around the neighborhood:

Neighbors at Meeting (via DNAinfo)

Sunday's murder in a South Loop alley has generated a new neighborhood group and a lot of questions for Downtown police.  

What was billed as an "informal" gathering Tuesday about rising violence here drew a much bigger turnout than expected, leaving one neighbor scrambling to get his daughter's karaoke machine so he could emcee the impromptu event.  

But the mood among guests was serious, and unified: that their growing neighborhood is changing, and not for the better.  

"The numbers tell a pretty compelling story that something is wrong," Dave Sudzus, who lives next to the alley where a 45-year-old man was shot dead Sunday morning, said. Sudzus and others have moved to create a new group dedicated to curbing rising violence in the area: the South Loop Safety Association.  

The ad hoc group solicited ideas from neighbors Tuesday at The Spoke & Bird, 205 E. 18th St., and seemed to arrive at one conclusion: more surveillance cameras from landlords and building associations.

While we wish the neighborhood didn't need meetings like this, at least it's comforting that so many people are vested in making sure we're doing all we can to tackle this problem.