Chicago to Evanston shootings: Customer, 20, and clerk, 81, didn’t see gunman coming. ‘It’s just blatant disregard for human life,’ says relative after shooting rampage
As Anthony Faulkner Jr. neared his big brother’s house, the pair decided to make a quick stop at a Brainerd convenience store Saturday. Leaving his brother in the orange Saturn Vue, Faulkner ran in, selected a blue raspberry juice, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, and asked the clerk — an 81-year-old woman — for a lottery ticket, a relative said.
Faulkner’s cousin, Shapearl Wells, said the jovial 20-year-old laughed and joked with the clerk, who later was identified by police as Virginia McAllister. And, as surveillance video from the AK Food Mart at 93rd and Halsted streets showed, Faulkner spent his last minutes alive unaware that directly behind him stood a gunman who would shoot seven people on Saturday, killing Faulkner and two others before the inexplicable rampage was through. A fourth victim has since died, according to Evanston police.
“I know that AJ never saw him coming because (the shooter) came up from behind him before he shot AJ and the woman behind the counter,” Wells said, using a nickname to refer to Faulkner, who allegedly was killed by Jason Nightengale, 32, according to Chicago police.
Nightengale was killed during a shootout with Evanston police near Howard Street and Western Avenue about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, but Evanston Police Chief Demetrious Cook said it wasn’t clear who fired first.
Earlier, Nightengale is believed to have killed a 30-year-old doctoral candidate named Yiran Fan, who was a citizen of China studying at the University of Chicago, police allege. The shooting in an East Hyde Park parking garage was the first in Nightengale’s shooting spree, which spanned two cities, confounded area residents and left untold pain in its wake.
He then fatally shot Aisha Nevell, 46, a longtime doorwoman at the Barclay condo building in the 4900 block of South East End Avenue and shot 77-year-old Shirley Hinton three times as she stood in the same lobby, authorities have charged.
At 3 p.m. Saturday, Nightengale went into a building he formerly lived in and is accused of following a man to the 19th floor of the nearby high-rise, demanding the keys to the man’s red Toyota and driving off in it, headed southwest to Brainerd, police said.
He next would encounter Faulkner, entering the convenience store with the intent to rob it, authorities said. Surveillance video shows he walked up behind an unsuspecting Faulkner and shot him in the back of the head at close range. Then he shot McAllister from across the counter.
“It’s just blatant disregard for human life; it’s indescribable,” said Wells. “(Faulkner) was laughing and joking with the lady, the clerk that also got shot. He was always very cheerful, upbeat, talking to everybody like that. Part of me is glad he didn’t see it coming. I really thank God for that because, just thinking about it, it tears my heart up.”
She described the chaotic moments that followed as Antonio Faulkner, 21, who had been waiting outside in the passenger seat of his brother’s SUV, heard two gunshots and immediately ducked down. During the drive, the brothers — two of eight siblings — had talked about Anthony Faulkner’s future.
He had only moved back to Chicago from Minnesota three weeks earlier in search of steady employment, said his cousin. He’d been working as a general laborer on construction jobs in Minnesota but was let go amid the pandemic slowdown, Wells said.
“Before he was murdered he was planning on going to real estate school so he could combine that with his knowledge of construction and get started flipping houses,” Wells said. “A lot of our family members flip houses. That’s what him and his brother were talking about on the way to the store.”
When Antonio Faulkner dared look up after hearing the gunshots, he saw a man running past in a blur. He knew the noise had come from the store, Wells said.
“He gets out of the car and goes in the store and finds his brother’s body,” Wells said. “He’s the one who found him — and he said he saw him take his last breath.”
Through Wells, Antonio Faulkner declined to be interviewed. “He’s too distraught to speak,” she said.
Anthony Faulkner was tall and skinny but ate like there was no tomorrow, Wells said, adding, “And I’m like where are you putting all this stuff? He just loved to eat.” His favorites were pizza and tacos. He played basketball and liked making TikTok videos and listening to rap music, Wells said.
“He was a practical joker, extremely funny. He would light up the room when he came in. He had this contagious smile. He was always happy and smiling — he was just a ray of sunshine in our lives,” she said.
Wells intimately knows the pain Faulkner’s parents and seven siblings are feeling, having lost her own son, Courtney Copeland, to a similarly senseless shooting in 2016. She produced a podcast, “Somebody,” about Copeland’s death, which was hailed as a success by People and Oxygen. Episode One reveals Copeland’s high school buddy was Chancelor Bennett, better known as Chance the Rapper. She poured her heart into the podcast in the hopes it might lead to an arrest, but her son’s 2016 murder remains unsolved. Now she’s lost another family member.
“It takes you right back to everything we went through as a family dealing with my son’s death. This is like opening up old wounds,” she said. “They were both killed so senselessly. We have to be safe in this city, We cannot continue to lose so many young people for no reason at all. We can’t continue to live like this. We can’t continue to die like this.”
Wells’ last conversation with Faulkner came via text message on New Year’s Eve, which had been Copeland’s birthday, Wells said. “He asked me for Courtney’s location in the cemetery. He wanted to go visit his grave. That was the last time I heard from him,” she said.
McAllister, the 81-year-old clerk, was shot in the shoulder and her condition was not known, according to police. There was no answer at AK Food Mart Monday. Reached by phone, two relatives of McAllister declined to comment. A male relative said the family intended to release a statement at a later time.
Nightengale is accused of robbing the store and then driving a short distance to the 10300 block of South Halsted Street in Washington Heights, where a 15-year-old girl was shot in the head while sitting in the back seat of a Chevrolet Equinox driven by her mother, Tiffany McNeal, police said. McNeal’s daughter, Damia Smith, 15, was taken to Comer Children’s Hospital in critical condition.
Authorities say Nightengale then drove to Evanston, where he shot at someone in a CVS but did not injure anyone, then ran to the IHOP where he attacked a woman just inside the restaurant doors and shot her, investigators said.
The woman was an Evanston resident and has died, said Evanston police chief Demitrous Cook at Monday’s City Council meeting.
Authorities responded to the area and within minutes, Nightengale was dead, officials said.
In the wake of the rampage, families are struggling with grief, anger and unanswered questions.
McNeal said her 15-year-old daughter has not regained consciousness. “I’m here with her. I’m numb.”
Damia remained in stable but critical condition Monday. “No change, nothing new,” McNeal said by phone.
Wells is angry. She recalled how the city used its cellular alert system to keep residents apprised of dangerous conditions during the pandemic and riots in the summer. From her understanding, she said, investigators were aware the seemingly random shootings were connected much sooner than they’ve said.
“It’s like the South Side of Chicago was under siege and we had no idea. They could’ve used that alert system. A lot of people could’ve been saved as opposed to being killed, or injured,” Wells said. “I feel the police failed the citizens of Chicago.”
But at a news conference late Saturday, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown refuted that. He explained that without “a crystal ball,” officers were always one step behind because they didn’t have enough witness information at each shooting scene to connect them to a single gunman — until it was too late.
Nightengale’s death may bring some closure, said Wells, who saw no justice in her own son’s death. But it will not be enough for the family to heal.
“My son’s killer is still out there, so for me, it does bring some kind of peace,” Wells said. “But your loved one still doesn’t come back. Whether they’re captured, killed, arrested — you still have a hole in your heart. You never get over it. You just don’t.”
Chicago Tribune’s Genevieve Bookwalter, Annie Sweeney and Jeremy Gorner contributed.
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