As unsolved Rogers Park killings reach second anniversary, community leaders call for justice

Brian Campbell, whose husband Douglass Watts was fatally shot in Rogers Park in 2018, speaks to reporters about the shooting in the North Side neighborhood, Friday afternoon, Oct. 2, 2020. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

Rogers Park community leaders gathered Friday afternoon to call for city to solve two cold cases that hit their second anniversary this week.

Douglass Watts was shot in the head and killed while walking his dogs on Sept. 30, 2018. The next day, Eliyahu Moscowitz, also was shot in the head with the same gun while walking on a lakefront path.

Bill Morton, president of the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, called on Ald. Maria Hadden (49th), Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to ”step up” to help solve the killings.

“The families in our community as a whole need closure,” Morton said. “We can’t be living under the gun not knowing when this Rogers Park killer may strike again.”

Morton said he also wants the city to allocate more resources fighting community violence.

Brian Campbell (left), whose husband Douglass Watts was fatally shot in Rogers Park in 2018, listens as Bill Morton, president of the Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, speaks to reporters about the shooting in the North Side neighborhood, Friday afternoon, Oct. 2, 2020.

According to the Chicago Police Department, no one is in custody in connection with the case, and detectives are still investigating.

Trudy Leong, a Rogers Park Chamber administrator, asked for the shooter to turn themselves in and that “what goes around comes around.”

“You might not get killed, but I don’t know if you care about your family members. ... the only way that you might be able to protect them is to give yourself up,” she said.

Brian Campbell, husband of Douglass Watts, said he was thankful for the support of the neighborhood and the community for the last two years.

“All that I would like is for justice to be served,” Campbell said.

The Chicago Police Department previously released a surveillance photo of a masked man suspected in the murders of Eliyahu Moscowitz (top left) and Douglass Watts (bottom left).