The tearful fiancee of a man killed at last weekend’s Willowbrook-area mass shooting said Wednesday that the couple had only been at the Juneteenth celebration for a few minutes before gunfire erupted.
Two women started to tussle, someone yelled “fight,” and then there was a series of three gunshots, said Ashley Miller, who lost her fiance, Reginald Meadows, during the ensuing chaos.
“When I ran and I hid, I know the only reason Reginald didn’t duck was because he wanted to make sure I was OK,” said Miller, seated with the Meadows family attorney, Robert Fakhouri, at his downtown Chicago office.
Miller, at times so overcome with grief she could barely speak, said it was a last-minute decision to attend the event, which drew hundreds of people to a shopping center parking lot at Route 83 and Honeysuckle Rose Lane for the third annual Juneteenth celebration.
“I’m trying to figure out this new normal that I’m presented with. I’m left trying to pick up the pieces because Reginald was my best friend. Reggie was amazing. When he walked into the room, he lit up the room,” Miller said.
The party turned violent, with a couple of fights breaking out. In the early hours Sunday, gunfire erupted. Meadows, a 31-year-old father of two, was killed and 22 others were wounded, according to DuPage County officials.
Flyers had promoted the event for weeks, and a film production crew had been invited to record a local rapper’s music video.
Fakhouri described Meadows’ death as senseless and said his law firm is investigating the circumstances leading up to the shooting, including speaking to victims and eyewitnesses and securing any video — both from nearby stores and taken by witnesses.
A lawsuit hasn’t been filed, but Fakhouri said this week that he is looking into the possibility of filing a wrongful-death suit against the property owner of the shopping center.
Two tenants of the shopping center continued selling alcohol until shots were fired around 12:30 a.m. Sunday — well past their 10 p.m. closing times, Fakhouri has said.
Reginald Meadows’ brother, Darren, who was also at Wednesday’s media event, said of his brother: He “was a wonderful man, an amazing person. It was his first year coaching his son’s baseball team. It was his passion.”
Reginald Meadows leaves behind two children, ages 11 and 13, family said.
The family has set up a Gofundme page to help pay for funeral expenses and to support Meadows’ children. The page had raised about $9,600 as of Wednesday.
