Chicago Cook County Judge Raymond Myles shot dead outside Chicago home front door: A targeted hit or an attempted robbery gone wrong?
Chicago Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles has died after being gunned down in the early morning hours of Monday in what may or may not have been an attempted robbery.
The 66 year old judge’s murder at 5 am came as Myles responded to a shooting outside the front door of his Forest Avenue, Roseland home pre dawn reported the chicagotribune.
Shot initially was a 52 year old unnamed woman who had exited the home of Judge Raymond Myles.
A report via dnainfo cited police saying the woman leaving the judge’s house when she encountered and engaged with the gunman who in turn shot her in the leg.
Upon hearing gunfire, the judge went out to investigate, spoke to the man and was then shot at least four times, killing him.
The shooter ran away, police said, though it’s possible there was a car nearby for him told Melissa Staples, chief of detectives.
The woman called 911, and officers found the two outside the house at 4:51 a.m. Photos of the home show a large driveway leading to a parking pad, where the shootings happened.
Despite being taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, Judge Raymond Myles was pronounced dead soon after. The woman was in serious condition but was expected to survive.
In Possible Botched Robbery, Judge Raymond Myles, 66, Killed Outside his #Chicago home. pic.twitter.com/kSO1h0QTi7
— The Oratorian (@TheOratorian) April 10, 2017
The injured woman was described by Staples as a ‘close associate’ of the judge. The two were likely headed to the garage together to go to work out at a gym, she said, and it was known in the neighborhood that the two usually left to go work out around that time.
Police said that the lawmaker and his colleague are not believed to have known the shooter in what some think may have been a planned burglary.
While the incident possibly started as an attempted robbery, police said nothing was taken from the judge or the woman. There has been a pattern of robberies in the area, but it wasn’t clear if they were related to the shooting.
The chief of detectives could not provide a description of the suspect but said he fled on foot and then possibly in a car nearby.
Myles, an associate judge in Cook County Circuit Court’s Criminal Division, was a longtime jurist who has been involved in several high-profile cases. A year and a half ago, he was beaten by another motorist during a road rage incident.
The judge was a described as demanding but fair by court personnel who knew him.
Defense attorney Wendelin DeLoach, who knew Myles for five years, said he was ‘a phenomenal human being’ and ‘very dignified.’ He often asked defendants if they had high school diplomas or equivalencies and if they didn’t would try to arrange those.
He ‘gave the accused hope,‘ DeLoach said.
Others meanwhile wonder if the judge may have been targeted in a case of retribution?
A neighbor who has lived on the block for 50 years, said the murder was ‘just shocking.’
‘It doesn’t happen out here. You hear about car break-ins, small things like that, but not shootings,’ the neighbor said.
Myles worked at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Cook County’s main criminal courthouse at 26th and California. He’d been on the court since October 1999 when the Illinois Supreme Court appointed him to fill a vacancy. Circuit judges then appointed him as an associate judge in June 2001, and he has served in the criminal division since March 2009.
Chief Judge Timothy Evans said he was ‘deeply saddened’ by the news.
Staples said detectives were pursuing ‘multiple and promising leads’ and reviewing video footage from public and private surveillance cameras in the neighborhood. The injured female colleague is expected to survive after having undergone emergency surgery.
