Feb. 27--A 22-year-old man was ordered held without bail after being charged with fatally shooting a 62-year-old disabled Vietnam War veteran who had called police to complain about a loud party at a neighbor's Near West Side apartment, prosecutors said Friday.
Kevin Mason, of the 1300 block of South Blue Island Avenue, was arrested after he was identified as the man who fatally shot Robert Howard Jr. about 6 p.m. Jan. 26 in the 1000 block of West Maxwell Street in the University Village neighborhood, according to officials.
Mason was ordered held without bond Friday by Criminal Court Judge Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr.
Mason was attending a party in an apartment next to Howard's but when the party became loud and people began smoking and drinking in the hallway outside Howard's apartment, Howard called police, prosecutors said.
After police arrived, they broke up the party and Mason and several others left the building but returned a few minutes later, according to prosecutors.
After police left, Howard and the neighbor, Charneise Silas, 45, who was hosting the party got into an argument in the hallway. The two began fighting when the neighbor punched Howard in the face and then the two began to scuffle in the hallway, prosecutors said.
By that point, Mason and two others were buzzed back into the building and attempted to make their way to the third floor where Howard lived and where the party had previously been held.
After Howard fell during the scuffle, the neighbor backed up to a stairwell door, opened it and let Mason and the others back onto the floor.
Mason began to beat Howard with the butt of a handgun and then shot Howard, who was unarmed, once in the abdomen, prosecutors said. After he fell to the floor, Mason shot him two more times, striking him in the back of the head, according to prosecutors.
After the shooting, Mason was captured on video leaving the building and minutes later told someone that he shot Howard in the stomach and "had to finish him off." Prosecutors said three people saw Mason hit Howard with the gun and two saw him fatally shoot Howard.
Police returned to the scene after the shooting and recovered a gun after being told that a gun had been spotted in the laundry room of a building in the same apartment complex.
The 9 mm semi-automatic pistol was found with two live rounds. Police said the bullet casings recovered from the hallway were fired from the gun found in the hallway.
Mason was arrested early Friday.
Police discovered Howard inside his apartment with a gunshot wound to the head, police said.
Howard died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was pronounced dead at 6:48 p.m., police said at the time.
Several days after the fatal shooting, police charged Silas, Howard's neighbor, with aggravated battery in the slaying.
Silas appeared for a bond hearing Jan. 29 before Cook County Judge Laura Marie Sullivan and was ordered held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
At a press conference, police said a warrant had been issued for Mason who was arrested in St. Cloud, Minn. and brought back to Chicago where he was charged with first-degree murder.
According to Eugene Roy, Chief of Detectives for the Chicago Police Department, Howard was a disabled Vietnam War veteran who had served three years in the war.
"Mr. Howard was a veteran of the U.S. Army. Suffered serious injuries there that led to him being disabled," said Roy.
Howard began working with a program, Safe Humane Chicago, to combat post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans at the Jesse Brown Veterans Affairs Hospital on the near west side.
"He went through a seven-week course. And really took to the program and actually became one of the leaders, and at the time of his death he was actually involved with other veterans," said Roy. "He was going to the VA Hospital...every day facilitating courses with other veterans and using the service dogs to help them get over their PTSD."
Roy said the Howard's service dog was returned to the group but is up for adoption.
Mason's criminal background includes two felony gun convictions.
In 2011, Cook County Judge Neera Lall Walsh sentenced Mason to boot camp and he received credit for serving 44 days in the Cook County Jail, records show.
In 2013, he was sentenced to 3 years in state prison on a separate gun conviction. He had also received credit for serving 98 days in the Cook County Jail, according to the records, but Roy said Mason served less than two years of that 3-year-sentence.
"There are no consequences," Roy told reporters Friday morning at police headquarters. "There are no repercussions when convicted felons are caught with handguns. They end up doing less than half of that term, they take that as a clear signal that there are no repercussions."
"We are using every tool, every strategy we can to hold gun offenders accountable," Roy added. "There's got to be a stick to go with the carrot."
