Man accused of shooting and killing Portage Park girl held without bail
Just before she was shot and killed by a man who was a stranger to her, 9-year-old Serabi Medina walked to a nearby ice cream truck to buy something with money given to her by a friend of her father.
She came back with two ice creams, one for her and one for her dad.
Shortly after, her father heard a shot fired and ordered the girl back to their apartment. As Serabi rode a scooter back toward the vestibule of her building, prosecutors alleged, Michael Goodman emerged from the building across the street, followed the girl toward her home and shot her in the head.
As court attendees grew emotional hearing the details, Cook County prosecutors on Tuesday laid out the case against Goodman, a 43-year-old computer programmer charged with first-degree murder in the girl’s slaying.
Judge Kelly Marie McCarthy ordered him held without bail during a bond hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. Goodman appeared in person, clasping his hands and lowering his head as deputies led him in and out of the courtroom.
On Saturday evening, Serabi’s father was talking to three friends who were seated in a vehicle in front of their apartment building in the 3500 block of North Long Avenue, Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord said at the hearing.
After the group heard the gunshot and her father told her to go inside, one of the friends saw Goodman crossing the street with a gun in his hand, McCord said. Serabi’s father shouted to Goodman asking what he was doing.
The father watched as Goodman raised the gun and shot Serabi, prosecutors said.
Her father tackled Goodman in the vestibule, and the gun discharged as they both fell, hitting Goodman in the eye.
Her father and his friends identified Goodman as the shooter of the 9-year-old, and his hands tested positive at the hospital for gunshot residue, McCord said. The Cook County medical examiner’s office initially listed the child as 8 years old.
Police searched Goodman’s apartment and found a bullet lodged in the wall, prosecutors said, as well as a box of ammo. Goodman was licensed to own a gun.
Goodman’s public defender asked for a reasonable bail, noting that he has no criminal history.
Family and neighbors recalled how much the young girl loved her dog, riding her bike up and down the street and helping her father — a mechanic — fix cars. One of her aunts, Jacqueline Rodriguez, recalled how the family went to a water park in Des Plaines over the weekend.
“She was having the time of her life,” she said. “She was a little daredevil,” another one of the girl’s aunts, Marisol Cruz, said.
The memorial outside the girl’s apartment building grew Tuesday evening. Newly lit prayer candles were left next to others among balloons, flowers and photos of the slain child. Stuffed animals — a bear, a husky, a bunny — surrounded the tree where neighbors stopped to remember her.
Mario Silva pointed to a poster at the memorial. He remembered the girl depicted on it, he said. Silva, who helps manage the building, had seen her many times before, happy.
“She was beautiful,” he said.
The girl’s father often tried to help Silva around the apartment, Silva said. The building manager has two daughters of his own.
He’d never encountered problems in the building, he said. But he recalled other shootings nearby, a too-common occurrence that made him wonder if his kids could be outside.
“This, this affects everyone, in every type of way,” he said.
Some clutched their heart as they passed the memorial. A group of young boys, one carrying a basketball, paused and made the sign of the cross. Another young woman lit a candle. She crouched to place it, and rubbed her eyes as she lingered.
Later, Edwin Roman left a tie-dye teddy bear tied to pink and purple balloons. He didn’t know the girl, but felt moved to come when he heard what happened.
“She was still a baby,” the 38-year-old Portage Park resident said. “She lived a short life.”
Another woman lingered in the doorway of the apartment building next to the Serabi’s home. She recalled seeing her play.
She rode her scooter on the sidewalk after school, always near her protective father, the woman said, adding it would be strange to no longer see the girl.
mabuckley@chicagotribune.com
