A Chicago teen suspected of being a serial murder attacked everyday people seemingly at random, city officials say. Antonio Reyes, now 21, shot and killed his victims while they were going about their typical daily activities, said Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke, USA Today reports. “None of these people had ever met Antonio Reyes before and there’s no reason to suspect Antonio Reyes had any reason to target them,” Burke said. “One victim was killed when he went to the gas station to buy a pop . . . Another victim was sitting in a parked car with a friend on Palm Sunday afternoon . . . Another victim’s only crime was taking his family to buy a new puppy one afternoon.” Reyes is charged with six counts of murder. The deadly assaults all happened in 2020 on the city’s Southwest Side. He was also charged with four counts of attempted murder. Three of the attempted murder victims were children between ages 3 and 9. “It’s sad,” Burke said. “It’s sad to think about a 17-year-old committing serial murders over the course of nine months.”
The victims were all males, ages 16, 20, 21, 31 and 31, Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said. Reyes has been in police custody since 2021 on a separate murder charge, Snelling said. While in custody, Reyes also attempted to kill his cellmate with a shank, Burke said. Major breaks in the case, according to Chief of Detectives Antionette Ursitti, came when police were able to link a .40-caliber handgun they recovered to multiple shootings as well as link Reyes’ “fairly significant” social media footprint to the crimes. Snelling praised the investigative work it took to link Reyes to the murders. “Not once have these detectives forgotten why they do this job,” he said. “They investigated these cases for more than four years in the memory of the victims and the family members of these victims and also our community members who have had to suffer through this trauma.” The top cop was aghast at “the level of disregard this offender had toward human life.”
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