‘They never deserved this,’ relatives of slain victims say as suspect held without bail in gruesome Portage Park birthday party killings, kidnapping
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A recently paroled 32-year-old man opened fire on “everyone who called out his name,” killing three people including a “resilient” young mother of three as she tried to hide, a 50-year-old father and a 26-year-old Franklin Park man when an argument turned deadly at a birthday party in Portage Park over the weekend, prosecutors said Wednesday,
All of the victims were friends and family to each other, including a woman who was celebrating her 26th birthday that night and remains clinging to life on a feeding tube after being shot while crouching next to her father as he lay dying.
The alleged gunman, Samuel Parsons-Salas, appeared before Cook County Judge Barbara Dawkins who denied bail during a hearing that was livestreamed on YouTube.
Parsons-Salas, charged with three counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and kidnapping with a firearm after the 2:30 a.m. Sunday attack at Vera Lounge, 5554 W. School St., prosecutors said. He was also wanted on a warrant.
The victims were Ricky Vera, 50, Mario Pozuelos, 26, of Franklin Park and Mercedes Tavares, 24, from Chicago Heights, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. The woman, who prosecutors said was Vera’s daughter and who had been celebrating her birthday, was shot in the head and taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where she remains in critical condition, police said. She turned 26 on Monday.
Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers, who did not make clear a motive in court Wednesday, said Parsons-Salas was at the party that night with his girlfriend of two weeks, a 26-year-old woman.
About 2:30 a.m., the 25-year-old birthday celebrant was “struck” during a physical altercation inside the lounge, causing a crowd to run outside, McCord Rodgers said.
Video and audio surveillance captured what happened next: Vera, 50, confronted Parsons-Salas in the middle of the street and demanded to know who had tried to hurt his 25-year-old daughter. As Parsons-Salas’ girlfriend stood between him and Vera, Parsons-Salas fired a gun past her and hit Vera in the head and chest while his girlfriend hurried into the driver’s seat of a nearby car, McCord Rodgers said.
At that point, Parsons-Salas “turned and fired his gun six times” in the direction of a Pozuelos, hitting him in the head and throat, as Vera’s daughter crouched at her father’s side. Parsons-Salas then “casually” approached Vera’s daughter and “shot her in the head at close range” as she was caring for her dad, according to McCord Rodgers.
It had been her birthday, Police Superintendent David Brown said earlier, adding that she continues to fight for her life.
“It was heartless,” Brown said.
Parsons-Salas then strode back to Pozuelos and shot him again, “at close range” before running to his girlfriend in the car, McCord Rogers said.
But before getting in, he saw Tavares hiding behind a van next to his car and also shot her at “close range,” McCord Rodgers, said. After she collapsed on the sidewalk, he “stands over” her and shot her again, McCord Rodgers said.
Once back in his car, he aimed the gun at his girlfriend and told her to drive him home, but after she crashed before getting there while trying to escape, he forced her to keep driving to an apartment in the 5200 block of West Montrose Avenue.
There, he told her if she said anything or tried to call out, he would shoot her. He also got rid of her coat and destroyed her cellphone.
Parsons-Salas, of the 3200 block of North Linder Avenue, was taken into custody about 2 p.m. Monday after a short foot chase at the Montrose apartment where he’d allegedly been hiding and carried out the alleged kidnapping, prosecutors said.
Ten shell casings were found on the scene and while ballistics is “outstanding” Parsons-Salas allegedly “apologized” for killing Tavares and admitted he shot everyone who “called out his name” according to McCord Rodgers.
He was also identified by “multiple eyewitnesses,” prosecutors said.
Anguished relatives of the victims published comments on GoFundMe pages.
Tavares was a mother of three and the “queen of my little family,” wrote Miguel Gordillo, the father of the children.
She was strong, a wonderful mother, and had an “enthusiasm for life,” wrote Gordillo, Her children, twins about 9 months old and a 3 ½-year-old boy, were the “center of her life” but she also loved fashion and beauty and was studying microblading.
“She absolutely adored our babies,” Gordillo wrote.
Pozuelos’ brother, Ricardo, wrote: “As a family, we are at a loss for words. We are mourning the loss of Mario Pozuelos our beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, friend, & family! He was taken from us too soon due to a senseless act of gun violence! Our hearts are with the other victims and families,” he wrote on the crowdfunding site.
“They never deserved this. Our Mario had his whole life ahead. Our family is devastated!”
Luis E. Ortiz wrote on behalf of Vera and his daughter, with the intention to “get them all the help possible”
“Rick was celebrating his daughter Mariah’s birthday late Saturday night with other family and friends when an argument escalated, leaving Rick and two of Mariah’s friends dead and leaving Mariah in critical condition with gunshot wounds,” Ortiz wrote.
Parsons-Salas’ background includes convictions in 2015 for aggravated battery to a police officer, a 2014 home invasion that was reduced from first-degree murder charge, a 2010 robbery and a 2008 robbery, prosecutors said.
Parsons-Salas, who was released on parole in September for the home invasion, is due back in court Jan. 2, records show.
Chicago Tribune’s Jake Sheridan contributed.
