By Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY
A 19-year-old man has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in last week’s quadruple homicide at a Chicago fast food restaurant, police said.
Police took Maurice Harris into custody Tuesday and charged him in the fatal shooting that authorities believe was a gang-related attack. The four killings were among seven homicides that occurred Thursday over a 12 hour-period within a few blocks of each other in the city’s South Shore neighborhood.
Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said last week that investigators believe the incident at the restaurant was likely connected to a shooting that occurred about seven hours later and left two people dead.
Investigators do not believe the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old woman in the same neighborhood on that day was related to the other two incidents.
In the quadruple homicide, four male victims were found in or around the Nadia Fish and Chicken restaurant, according to police.
Police said a male suspect approached the restaurant and fired shots. When officers arrived at the scene, they found two of the victims — Emmanuel Stokes, 28, and Edwin Davis, 32 — inside the restaurant. Dillon Jackson, 20, was found dead outside the restaurant. His brother, Raheem Jackson, 19, was found in a nearby yard. The Jackson brothers’ mother worked in the restaurant where they were shot.
The nation’s third-largest city has tallied more than 140 murders in 2017, nearly the same number of killings as the city saw at this point last year. Chicago finished 2016 with more than 760 murders, making it the most violent year for the city in about two decades.
Police scheduled a news conference Wednesday to discuss details of the arrest.
