17yearold charged in carjacking and shooting deaths in Lake View and Bronzeville
Feb 20, 2026
Police announced charges Friday for a 17-year-old boy who authorities say was involved in the slayings of two men that happened an hour apart during linked carjackings earlier this month in Lake View and Bronzeville.The boy was arrested Thursday, according to police. He faces charges of first-degree
murder, vehicular hijacking, attempted vehicular hijacking and aggravated discharge of a firearm. Another person of interest remains in custody. Darwin Tirado, 22, and Damon Kellum, 45, were killed about an hour apart in the Feb. 11 attacks, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office and police.
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Tirado was in the 700 block of West Waveland Avenue shortly before 4 a.m., sitting in a parked car, having a conversation with a 38-year-old man after the two had left a nearby tavern when two people attacked them, killing Tirado and fleeing in his car, according to police reports. The 38-year-old was not injured. About an hour later and 12 miles away in Bronzeville, Kellum was gunned down in the 3700 block of South Lake Park Avenue, and Tirado’s car was found nearby, according to police, who said the two assailants tried at least twice more to carjack vehicles after the killings on the same day, police said.
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