2nd man charged with killing woman in West Side shooting

A second man has been charged in a 2018 shooting that killed a woman and wounded her boyfriend in the West Garfield Park neighborhood.

Kevin Gayden, 20, was ordered held without bail Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm in the slaying of 21-year-old Jasmine Jackson.

Gayden and his co-defendant, Edward Williams, allegedly ambushed Jackson and her boyfriend on Aug. 31 in the 4300 block of West End Avenue, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

They were seen on video surveillance entering an alley and waiting for Jackson and a man as they walked down Kenneth Avenue, prosecutors said. When they passed the mouth of the alley, Williams immediately opened fire, prosecutors said.

Kevin Gayden

A bullet lodged into Jackson’s head, and she was pronounced dead at Norwegian American Hospital, prosecutors said. Jackson’s boyfriend, 19, ran from the scene with a gunshot wound to his shoulder, Chicago police said at the time.

Video captured Gayden running gun-in-hand back to a rental car he drove off in, prosecutor said. Police found 12 shell casings at the scene, all fired from the same gun, prosecutors said.

Later that day, Williams was stopped by police, and the rental used in the shooting was recovered, prosecutors said. Detectives searched the car and found the same pants and shoes that Williams was seen wearing at the time of the shooting, prosecutors said.

Williams was charged with murder in September 2018 within a week of the shooting. His case in pending in Cook County court.

Edward Williams

Evidence against Gayden includes cellphone records that tracked his movements to the area of the shooting during the time of the murder, prosecutors said. Facebook photos also show Gayden dressed in the distinctive hooded sweatshirt that he allegedly wore to the shooting, according to prosecutors.

Gayden’s defense attorney said he was a lifelong resident of Chicago and has one child. The attorney said Gayden has been working for a security company and that his family could afford to post a bond of $5,000 to $10,000.

He is scheduled to appear in court again on July 2.

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