'What could anyone maybe have towards him?' Masked gunman kills elderly man jogging his dogs in Rogers Park

The gunman was wearing black and wearing a ski masks as he walked via Rogers Park on a sunny fall Sunday morning.

He passed a motor vehicle, glanced interior and stored going for walks in the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue round 10 a.m., a witness informed police. Minutes later, a single shot rang out down the road.

The witness bought out of his vehicle and noticed Willard D. Watts, 73, lying on the sidewalk with a wound to his head, based on police. He died simply steps from his domestic, where he had lived along with his husband and his partner's mother.

A neighbor, Lynda Kaplan, spoke of she become sitting in her first-floor apartment sipping espresso along with her brother when she heard the shot and ran backyard.

"I noticed him facedown on the floor," said Kaplan, 50. "We see every different every day. He's out together with his two older canine, walking them, and he's a frail older man. What could any one possibly have in opposition t him?"

Neighbors across the street held on to Watts' canine as police labored the scene.

officials firstly noted they have been investigating the taking pictures as a possible robbery, however a police report notes that detectives found his iPhone on the scene.

an additional witness instructed police that he become leaving a pal's condo regional and became heading to his motor vehicle when he heard a shot, in response to the record. He noticed the gunman, nevertheless donning the masks, running slowly away on Sherman, then working down an alley alongside CTA tracks east of Greenview Avenue.

Police mentioned no one in custody Monday.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, whose district contains Rogers Park, denounced the violence in a statement on fb. She also referenced the fresh taking pictures deaths of a violence prevention advocate and a grad pupil who had currently moved to Chicago.

"every of those mindless deaths leaves a hole within the fabric of our community," she wrote. "I grieve with my neighbors & unravel to proceed to push for smarter guidelines & options."

Investigators have been reviewing surveillance video, Ald. Joe Moore, 49th, posted in a nearby fb group. He said he became backyard cleansing his front gate, only a block and a half away, when the taking pictures happened.

A neighbor, Fallon Sowers, mentioned she and Watts would chat about their dogs. "We at all times joked that our dogs looked alike, like they may be in the identical litter," spoke of Sowers, a 35-12 months-old social worker who additionally has a small, tan dog.

"He gave the impression very mild, very variety, and it's simply coronary heart-wrenching," she added.

Sowers noted individuals on the block have been placing vegetation on the spot where he become shot, on the sidewalk outdoor a courtyard residence constructing.

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune

Pedestrians walk a dog near where Willard D. Watt's become shot and killed whereas jogging his dog in the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue in the Rodgers Park neighborhood, Sept. 30, 2018 in Chicago.

Pedestrians walk a dog near the place Willard D. Watt's was shot and killed whereas walking his dog within the 1400 block of West Sherwin Avenue within the Rodgers Park regional, Sept. 30, 2018 in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago Tribune crime group tracks taking pictures victims in Chicago. data represents variety of victims, no longer taking pictures incidents.

The Chicago Tribune crime team tracks murder victims in Chicago. statistics represents variety of victims, no longer capturing incidents.

The spike in violent crime that has plagued Chicago in view that 2016 has even more gravity when seen in assessment with six a long time of homicides in Chicago. on account that 1957, the metropolis has had murder totals of seven-hundred or greater pretty much half the time, 27 of 60 years, and has been lower than 500 a third of the time,...