Opinion ID: 2052501
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Peoria Street

Text: Officer Patrick Doyle of the Chicago police department testified that on August 7, 1991, he was on beat patrol. Shortly before 11 p.m. he received a call that shots were fired and a person was shot at 6556 South Peoria, a multistory apartment building. When Doyle arrived, he saw a victim lying in the walkway leading to the front door of the apartment building. The door was a common entrance to both 6556 and 6558 South Peoria. The victim was bleeding from a chest wound. Doyle eventually ascertained that the victim was Rhenardo Bussle. Doyle noticed bullet holes around the front door of the apartment building. The street lights in front of the building were on at the time. Doyle spoke to a few witnesses and then put out a description of a red and white taxicab that was wanted in connection with the shooting. Doyle further learned that two other victims of the shooting had fled to 6539 South Sangamon. Doyle went to that address and found the two victims, George Cruthard and Marcus Taylor. Cruthard had a wound to the left side of his neck, and Taylor had a wound on the right side of his abdomen. Neither Cruthard nor Taylor would give Doyle any information about the crime. George Cruthard testified that he was currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for a narcotics offense. During the late afternoon of August 7, 1991, he was standing on the corner of 66th and Peoria. Several of Cruthard's homies were with him. A shot was fired at a car belonging to Tojo (Ivan Smith). The shot came from the same side of the street that Cruthard was standing on. Cruthard acknowledged that he was a member of the Gangster Disciples and that the gang sold drugs from 6558 South Peoria. Tojo was a member of the Black Disciples street gang, and there was an ongoing conflict or war between the two gangs. Cruthard did not know if Tojo got hit by the shot. After the shot was fired, Cruthard fled the scene. At approximately 10 or 11 p.m., Cruthard was again standing in front of 6556-58 South Peoria. He was with Marcus Taylor and Rhenardo Bussle. Cruthard observed three cars coming slowly from the direction of 64th Street towards 66th Street. The car in the middle was a taxicab with its headlights turned off. As the cars moved closer, the windows on their passenger sides went down. Cruthard did not see anyone rolling the windows down because he was not paying attention. Cruthard recalled seeing that Tojo was driving the cab. He also remembered seeing defendant in the cab. Cruthard identified defendant in court. Cruthard had known defendant for about four years and knew him to be a member of the Black Disciples. When Cruthard saw defendant, defendant was in between the front and back seats of the cab, leaning forward towards the door. Cruthard testified that defendant appeared to be shooting. Cruthard saw flashes of lights coming from the cab and could not see anyone else's face. The cab was five or six yards away when the shooting started. Marcus Taylor was standing up as if he were in a daze, so Cruthard knocked him down and lay on top of him. The shooting continued, and Cruthard felt a burning sensation in his back. Cruthard jumped up and ran towards the gangway on the side of the building. While Cruthard was running down the gangway toward his house, he was shot in the jaw and the back of the head. He made it to his house, and his mother called an ambulance. Taylor also made it to Cruthard's house and was bleeding at the time. Cruthard remembered speaking to some police officers at the hospital, but did not remember specifically to whom he spoke. Cruthard did not tell the police who was involved in the incident because he did not want the police to arrest him and he was worried about himself and his family. Cruthard then went into hiding from the police. Eventually, he was arrested on a narcotics offense. On June 8, 1993, 22 months after the shooting, he gave a court-reported statement to the State's Attorney's office. Shortly thereafter he was sentenced to 15 years in the Department of Corrections for the narcotics offense. He testified that, although there was no agreement in exchange for his statement, the State's Attorney would recommend that he be sent to Stateville or Pontiac. [3] On cross-examination, Cruthard acknowledged that he originally told the police that, because he dropped something and was bent over picking it up when the shooting started, he did not see anything. Cruthard also acknowledged that the shooting was going on for only a second or so before he dove on top of Taylor. When Cruthard was arrested for the narcotics offense in December 1992, he had been caught with approximately 10 pounds of cocaine. In May 1993, he lost a motion to suppress the evidence in that case. Before he gave his statement to Mike Smith on June 8, 1993, he had been to the State's Attorney's office twice. On those occasions, Smith stated that he knew who shot Cruthard. However, Smith did not tell him that it was defendant or Tojo. Cruthard acknowledged that he previously testified that Smith did tell him prior to his viewing the photographs that Tojo and defendant shot him. He now denied that Smith did so, but testified that he was not lying before when he said that Smith made those assertions. The first time Cruthard told anyone about seeing defendant in the taxicab was June 8, 1993. That was also the same day he was sentenced on his drug case. Cruthard testified that defendant was not leaning out of the cab at the time of the shooting. Defendant was inside the car and the lights were off inside the car; the street lights on the corner were lit. According to Cruthard, everybody on the street knew within a week or two of the shooting that defendant had been arrested. Jerome Taylor (a/k/a Marcus Taylor) testified that in the late afternoon hours of August 7, 1991, he was standing at the corner of 66th and Peoria Streets. The building at that corner is a hangout for the Gangster Disciples; they sold drugs in front of the building. Cruthard and Kevin Gibbs were with Taylor on the afternoon of August 7 when Tojo drove by. Taylor had known Tojo for four or five years. Tojo flashed a gang sign at them, and Gibbs flashed one back and said, BDK (Black Disciple killers), to which Tojo replied, GDK (Gangster Disciple killers). Someone from the building fired a shot at Tojo's car, and Tojo drove to the middle of the block and then said that he would be back. Taylor testified that the Gangster Disciples were at war with the Black Disciples at the time. At 11 p.m. the same day, Taylor was selling drugs in front of the same building with Bussle (Taylor's cousin) and Cruthard. Taylor saw two cars drive up. The one in front was a red LeBaron, and the other was a taxicab. The LeBaron stopped in the middle of the intersection, and the taxicab stopped in front of the building. Taylor noticed the windows on the taxicab's passenger side being rolled down and saw the nose of a gun come out. When the shooting started, he could not see who was doing it. Cruthard pushed Taylor down, and Taylor laid on the sidewalk until the shooting died down. The taxicab was stopped for about 30 seconds while the shooting was occurring. When the shooting subsided, Taylor got up and checked on his cousin. At that time he saw defendant in the front passenger seat of the taxicab, and then the taxicab sped away. Taylor had known defendant for about 12 years. He identified defendant in the courtroom. Taylor could not identify anyone else in the taxicab. Taylor testified that Cruthard got up and fled when the shooting died down, and the shooting stopped altogether when Cruthard ran away. Taylor checked on Bussle and found him choking on blood and saying it hurts. Bussle then passed out, and Taylor went to find Cruthard. Taylor had been grazed with a bullet, but did not go to the hospital when Cruthard did because he did not want to get involved. Taylor spoke to the police a day after the shooting but did not tell the police that he saw who did the shooting. His reason for not saying anything to the police was that the war was still going on and he did not want to be next. He finally gave a statement to an assistant State's Attorney on April 8, 1993. He did so because his aunt (Bussle's mother) was coming down on him and encouraging him to do the right thing. He was shown quite a few pictures at the State's Attorney's office, but defendant's was not one of them. Taylor testified that neither the police nor the assistant State's Attorney told him that defendant was a shooter. Taylor acknowledged that within a week or two of the shooting the Gangster Disciples knew that defendant had been arrested.