April 11--A Southwest Side man followed another man a half-mile from the Marquette Park Fieldhouse last June, then fatally shot him in the head, prosecutors said Monday.
Cordero Collins, 28, was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 bail in the June 10 fatal shooting of Arkeem Shepherd, 22. Shepherd was shot about 12:55 p.m. June 10 in the 3000 block of West 63rd Street and was pronounced dead at 3:45 p.m. the next day, authorities said at the time.
Shepherd was at the field house, 6700 S. Kedzie Ave., with two other people that afternoon, and after they left the field house and started driving out of the parking lot, Collins, who was driving the opposite direction from the car Shepherd was in, threatened Shepherd, according to Assistant State's Attorney Brian Whang.
Collins turned his vehicle around and followed the car Shepherd was in for several blocks, until Collins stopped his car briefly at 64th Street and Albany Avenue.
The car Shepherd was in went to a gas station near 63rd Street and stopped there, prosecutors said. Shepherd got out of the rear of the car and tried to cross 63rd on foot, Whang said.
Several people saw Collins drive up and fire one shot at Shepherd, hitting him in the jaw with a round that went into the left side of his neck and severed his carotid artery. Shepherd, of the 1200 block of West 71st Place, died a day later, and following an autopsy, the Cook County medical examiner's office determined he died of the gunshot wound in the neck.
Prosecutors did not spell out why Collins was under suspicion now -- since the time of the killing, he has been stopped at least twice for traffic violations -- but just before noon Sunday, Collins was stopped near 119th and Halsted streets and arrested, according to police and prosecutors. Police found a loaded .40-caliber handgun with 13 live rounds, as well as a bag with 12 smaller bags of what's believed to be cocaine inside, prosecutors said.
Collins, of the 6000 block of South California Avenue, is charged with murder, armed violence, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and possession of cocaine.
Collins' attorney said he works as a car salesman and has five children.
