Chicago man being shot dead Livestreamed on Facebook
A 28-year-old man was fatally shot while he was in front of a house with two of his three children and some friends, broadcasting live on Facebook in the North Lawndale neighbourhood on Wednesday night. The video shows the Chicago man talking to the camera with a friend and enjoying the warm weather moments before being gunned down by an unknown assailant.
About 8:45 p.m., Antonio Perkins was found face down with gunshot wounds to the neck and head in a vacant lot in the 1600 block of South Drake, according to Chicago Police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Caution : contains graphic violence
Perkins was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was declared dead at 9:07 p.m., authorities said.
The video featured Perkins drinking out of a bottle and laughing at a joke someone told. He and the others were not saying very much even though voices of others including a woman and a child can be heard. Six minutes into the video, there are gunshots, and screaming can be heard. Perkins falls on the grass after two shots.
The phone appears to fall to ground as more shots are fired in the city’s North Lawndale neighbourhood, while panicked voices can be heard in the background of the clip.
“Oh my God!” one person screams.
Other voices shout: “Call the police! Hurry up!”
“Man somebody call an ambulance, please!”
‘Tony! You good, Tony! You good, Tony!’
Another adds: “He [is] bleeding out his mouth and his nose right now.”
“Baby, wake up!” says another woman. “Tony, stay breathing! I love you! Tony, baby! Come on! Please!”
Even though the picture went dark for a while, someone obviously picked up the phone and filmed the alleged gunman driving away. The phone was then dropped on the blood-covered grass.
Police are reviewing the video although they are confident that the man in the video was in fact Perkins. According to Chicago police, the shooting was gang-related. The Daily Mail reports police spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, saying Perkins had spent two years in jail for making heroin. He was on a “strategic subjects list” made up of people who are likely gang targets or members of criminal gangs.
However, Perkins’ family and friends disagree he was a gang member. “A lot of people loved my son; he was a good person,” said his father Daniel Cole.
Perkins had just been promoted at McDonald’s. He worked almost every day and Wednesday night was a rare night out. His friends say he was not the target and not a gangbanger.
“Stop judging everybody. Stop judging us like that. His life really did matter,” said Tiffany, a friend of the victim.
To make matters worse for this family, Antonio Perkins’ brother was also shot to death several years ago. On the night Perkins died, 10 other people were shot in Chicago that day although all of them survived.
No arrests have been made and the Chicago police don’t have a suspect in custody right now. The video has been viewed over a million times.
