Cops: Second suspect identified in 2009 slaying
By BRIAN STANLEY bstanley@stmedianetwork.com September 26, 2012 4:54PM
Updated: October 29, 2012 6:33AM
JOLIET — Investigators reportedly have a second suspect in a drive-by shooting three years ago that killed a 19-year-old man.
Mark Bew Jr. was shot at about 8 p.m. on Aug. 3, 2009 while standing with two women at Fifth and Eastern avenues, when a green Chevrolet Lumina drove by and opened fire. One woman was struck in the arm and the other in the leg.
Bew, who police say is a known associate of the Vice Lords street gang also was hit and later died from his injuries at the hospital.
Police Cmdr. Brian Benton said witnesses identified the driver, Calvin Russell, as the shooter. At the time, Russell was on parole for vehicular hijacking.
Russell was found two weeks later hiding out at a Crest Hill apartment and arrested on murder charges.
Bew’s shooting occurred six days after he was released from jail for allegedly threatening the family of a 7-year-old boy who was shot in May 2008 when Bew and other men got into a fight outside the boy’s apartment.
Will County prosecutors recently discovered, while preparing for Russell’s upcoming trial, that a second gun was used in the shooting. Police Detective Stephen Diehl said lab reports showed there were two different types of shell casings found — meaning there was a second gun.
Witnesses and evidence at the time of the initial investigation did not indicate a second shooter was involved, Benton said.
Authorities now believe that a 22-year-old friend of Russells, who is a member of the Gangster Disciples street gang, was involved and likely will be indiced next week, Diehl said.
The accomplice, who police questioned during the initial investigation, is currently serving 12 years at the Big Muddy Correctional Center in Ina, Ill., for aggravated battery with a firearm and aggravated discharge of a firearm.
Diehl said the second suspect now has admitted to police that he was in the vehicle that shot at Bew, and that he’s shot a gun that police had in evidence in a separate incident. Police obtained the gun from another person involved in an unrelated incident eight days after Bew was killed.
Diehl said the state police crime lab ran ballistic tests on the weapon Monday and “immediately” matched it to the other evidence.
Benton said a grand jury is expected to indict the second suspect next week.
