In this undated photo provided by the Chicago Police Department on Thursday, April 15, 2010, James A. Larry, 32, of Madison, Wisc., is shown. Larry was charged Thursday with killing his pregnant wife, infant son and two nieces in a shooting spree at a Chi
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. 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. “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. Larry, the alleged gunman’s sister said he hadn’t been a “bad person,” but lately she heard “weird” things coming from him, including calling his family “demons” and himself an “angel.” 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. In the hours after the mass slaying, neighbors from the Southwest Side mixed community came by the home adding to a makeshift memorial on the victim’s porch. Renee Cobler, who lives five blocks away, brought three stuffed animals with rosary beads attached to help bring “peace to the victim’s souls” as a young girl looked from a second floor window in a home across the street. “Those were babies in that house. They couldn’t do anything to him. It sounds like he planned to do this. God isn’t going to tell you to kill nobody. The only one who will tell you that is the devil. How could you do that to your family,” asked Cobler as she tried to hold back tears. The woman who lives next door to the home said she was in disbelief of what transpired on the quiet street she lived on for the last 35 years. “I didn’t hear anything and then I wake up to this. I still can’t believe it. It’s like a nightmare,” said the neighbor, who asked to not be identified, who used to see the 13-year-old nephew walk his dog down the street from time to time. Another neighbor, Shirley Collins, who lives in the 7100 block of South Mozart Avenue also remembered seeing the “boy with the brown pit bull” walking the dog in the community. 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. Chicago Defender staff writer Kathy Chaney and Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Madison, Wis., and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. Photos: See more photos in Chicago Defender photo gallery.
