AP Source: Suspected Chicago gunman bemoaned lacking ammunition after 4 relatives found dead

Relative in custody after 4 killed in Chicago home

CHICAGO — A man arrested after a woman and three children, including an infant and a toddler, were found shot to death in a Chicago home told police voices encouraged him to kill his family and he was sorry he had run out of bullets, a person close to the investigation told The Associated Press.

Those killed inside a brick home on the city’s southwest side early Wednesday included the suspected gunman’s wife, his 7-month-old son and his two nieces, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation. A woman and a teenage boy also were wounded and remained hospitalized.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified the dead as: 7-month-old Jahad Larry, 3-year-old Kelesha Larry, 16-year-old Keyshai Fields and 19-year-old Tawana Thompson Larry.

The shootings may have resulted from a domestic situation, police spokeswoman Amina Greer said, but she would not confirm relationships between the suspected gunman and victims.

The person close to the investigation, however, said the suspected gunman was Tawana Thompson Larry’s husband and Jahad’s father. Kelesha and Keyshai were believed to be his nieces, the person said.

The person said the suspected gunman told police Allah had told him to kill family members. The man’s sister told reporters at a vigil outside the home that her brother had recently been reading passages from an Islamic text that led him to believe he should kill someone.

“My heart is crushed … He’s not a bad person. I don’t know why he would do this,” said Letisha Larry, 30, before breaking into tears and walking away.

The person who spoke on condition of anonymity said police believe the gunman had also chased a 12-year-old girl out of the house and fired his weapon at her, but missed, then fled the scene. The person said the girl notified police.

Officers arrested the suspected gunman several miles away about 90 minutes after the 4:30 a.m. shooting. They also found a handgun but had not determined Wednesday if it was the weapon used in the slayings.

Court documents in Madison, Wis., indicate a man and a woman with the same names as the suspected gunman and his wife were granted joint custody of a 7-month-old boy in a paternity case just last week.

Although there are discrepancies in the spelling of the woman’s first name and the first name of the boy — Wisconsin documents list her first name as Twanda and the boy as Jihad — the ages of both are the same as those killed in Chicago.

The man and woman married in March, according to the April 6 paternity judgment granting joint custody. The judgment said the man was unemployed, but was working through a temporary staffing agency in Madison for $10 an hour.

The man named in those court documents has a criminal history involving drugs and theft, beginning when he was in his late teens. In 2000, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for felony cocaine possession.

Most recently, prosecutors in September 2009 charged him with disorderly conduct and battery after he allegedly attacked Thompson, 18 at the time, in a van in a Walmart parking lot in Madison.

According to a criminal complaint, Thompson told police the man was angry with her, although the complaint does not say why. As she unloaded the baby stroller he allegedly grabbed her face and squeezed her cheeks, pulled her back inside the van and put her in a chokehold, the complaint said.

He then got out of the van and started swearing at bystanders, shouting something like “What would you do if your woman was acting like this?” He eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery.

Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis., and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.