The "Duck walk killer" — who shot 2 men in the head in a quiet Chicago neighborhood?
May 7, 2019 20:33:32 GMT
Post by hi224 on May 7, 2019 20:33:32 GMT
(NB: This case hits close to home for me because the murders took place just steps from where my family lives — my father walked past the crime scene just a couple hours beforehand. I tried to provide lots of informative links — unfortunately the case has gone frustratingly cold.)
On the morning of September 30, 2018, 73-year-old Douglass Watts was walking his two dogs around his neighborhood of Rogers Park, Chicago. A relatively quiet neighborhood on the far north side, situated just south of Evanston, Rogers Park is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city, both ethnically and economically. With no single race exceeding 50% of the population and a median income of about $40,000, it's home to an incredible variety of people from many walks of life.
Watts was described by a neighbor as "a gentle, kind, seemingly loving man" who often stopped to chat. He lived on Sherwin Ave, a primarily residential street; the home he shared with his husband was just off the main thoroughfare of Sheridan, and only a few blocks from the beach of Lake Michigan.
It was on the sidewalk just steps outside that home that, around 10 AM that morning, he was shot in the head — a single shot at point-blank range.
The killing immediately rocked the neighborhood. Although Rogers Park has its share of gang violence — including a tragic incident just that same month, in which an incoming Northwestern student was killed in crossfire near a bus stop — that violence is mostly localized. And it typically didn't occur in broad daylight on a quiet street, and it certainly didn't usually involve people like Doug Watts, an older man out walking his dogs.
There was an immediate sense that this shooting was different. Most muggings don't end in gunshots; and of the ones that do, most don't end with a bullet to the head. A neighbor said: "I came out to find my neighbor of five years face down in the middle of the street dead. He was out walking his dogs, and he was shot execution-style." Witnesses claimed that the murderer had obscured his face with a mask and a hoodie.
Although police speculated that robbery was the motive for the killing, this was met with skepticism by the community: Watts' belongings were left on his body. Given that there were witnesses and likely security footage, alderman Joe Moore expressed optimism that the case would be solved quickly. So the residents of Rogers Park, although shaken and confused by the event, mostly chalked it up to a robbery gone wrong, and went back to their lives.
The next evening, Oct 1, Eliyahu Moscowitz was just a few blocks from the site of the murder — no more than a 10 minute walk away — near Loyola Park. Moscowitz was a 24-year-old Lubavitcher, an Orthodox Jew; he supervised a kosher kitchen at a Jewel-Osco in nearby Evanston. The evening marked the onset of Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday; his father said that he was dressed in traditional Jewish attire and a long beard.
Around 10:20 PM in Loyola Park, he, too, was shot in the head at point-blank range.
A local pastor discovered Moscowitz just after he was shot. "He is laying there with the rain coming down, and if it was my son or my relative, I would just want someone to stand with them during this time — so it's sad," Pastor Elleson said. "I just find my heart breaking with the gentleman, is all."
Moscowitz was an avid player of Pokémon Go, and he was likely out catching Pokémon in the park that evening; he was well-known in the local Pokémon Go community. At a vigil for Moscowitz, a fellow Pokémon Go player said, “he would trade his crappiest Pokémon to give us his best."
Moscowitz's murder sent Rogers Park into a panic. One person shot in the head is hard enough to rationalize as a mugging gone wrong — but another, just the next day, just a few blocks away? The CPD promised they would run ballistics tests to determine whether the same gun fired both bullets.
The next afternoon, CPD superintendent Eddie Johnson confirmed it: the shell casings were a match. At that day's press conference, they released a chilling surveillance photo of the suspect, clad head-to-toe in all black, just before he shot Doug Watts outside his home.
The following day, police released surveillance video of the killer, both on Sherwin Ave before killing Watts, and fleeing after the crime. Due to his odd gait in the video, the killer has received the (in my opinion very unfortunate) nickname "The Duckwalk Killer." No video or photographic evidence was found from the Moscowitz murder.
In the aftermath of Moscowitz's murder, Rogers Park was on high alert. Police swarmed the neighborhood in what was described as a 'saturation' tactic, trying to catch the killer before he struck again. It apparently led nowhere.
Since then, the case has evidently gone cold. Although the murder raised the largest reward in Chicago history ($150,000), by February it was reported that detectives had exhausted all leads, including a suspect who turned out to have an alibi. The loved ones of Douglass Watts and Eliyahu Moscowitz are waiting for justice.
Points for discussion
There has been speculation that the murders were hate crimes: Watts was a gay man, and Moscowitz an Orthodox Jew. But Rogers Park is quite diverse — it's not implausible that if you picked two people at random, you'd get a gay man and an Orthodox Jew.
There was also speculation that the killings are related to the death of an unidentified woman by a shot to the head about 4 miles to the south, although this has been claimed to be a suicide.
As is not uncommon in cases like this, some people have speculated that the murders were "gang initiations." I'm not sure how real that is as a phenomenon.
The killer is dressed head to toe in all black on a temperate day — in the 60s F. This suggests he was intending to commit a crime. But was it a planned murder, or was it a botched robbery after all?
On the morning of September 30, 2018, 73-year-old Douglass Watts was walking his two dogs around his neighborhood of Rogers Park, Chicago. A relatively quiet neighborhood on the far north side, situated just south of Evanston, Rogers Park is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city, both ethnically and economically. With no single race exceeding 50% of the population and a median income of about $40,000, it's home to an incredible variety of people from many walks of life.
Watts was described by a neighbor as "a gentle, kind, seemingly loving man" who often stopped to chat. He lived on Sherwin Ave, a primarily residential street; the home he shared with his husband was just off the main thoroughfare of Sheridan, and only a few blocks from the beach of Lake Michigan.
It was on the sidewalk just steps outside that home that, around 10 AM that morning, he was shot in the head — a single shot at point-blank range.
The killing immediately rocked the neighborhood. Although Rogers Park has its share of gang violence — including a tragic incident just that same month, in which an incoming Northwestern student was killed in crossfire near a bus stop — that violence is mostly localized. And it typically didn't occur in broad daylight on a quiet street, and it certainly didn't usually involve people like Doug Watts, an older man out walking his dogs.
There was an immediate sense that this shooting was different. Most muggings don't end in gunshots; and of the ones that do, most don't end with a bullet to the head. A neighbor said: "I came out to find my neighbor of five years face down in the middle of the street dead. He was out walking his dogs, and he was shot execution-style." Witnesses claimed that the murderer had obscured his face with a mask and a hoodie.
Although police speculated that robbery was the motive for the killing, this was met with skepticism by the community: Watts' belongings were left on his body. Given that there were witnesses and likely security footage, alderman Joe Moore expressed optimism that the case would be solved quickly. So the residents of Rogers Park, although shaken and confused by the event, mostly chalked it up to a robbery gone wrong, and went back to their lives.
The next evening, Oct 1, Eliyahu Moscowitz was just a few blocks from the site of the murder — no more than a 10 minute walk away — near Loyola Park. Moscowitz was a 24-year-old Lubavitcher, an Orthodox Jew; he supervised a kosher kitchen at a Jewel-Osco in nearby Evanston. The evening marked the onset of Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday; his father said that he was dressed in traditional Jewish attire and a long beard.
Around 10:20 PM in Loyola Park, he, too, was shot in the head at point-blank range.
A local pastor discovered Moscowitz just after he was shot. "He is laying there with the rain coming down, and if it was my son or my relative, I would just want someone to stand with them during this time — so it's sad," Pastor Elleson said. "I just find my heart breaking with the gentleman, is all."
Moscowitz was an avid player of Pokémon Go, and he was likely out catching Pokémon in the park that evening; he was well-known in the local Pokémon Go community. At a vigil for Moscowitz, a fellow Pokémon Go player said, “he would trade his crappiest Pokémon to give us his best."
Moscowitz's murder sent Rogers Park into a panic. One person shot in the head is hard enough to rationalize as a mugging gone wrong — but another, just the next day, just a few blocks away? The CPD promised they would run ballistics tests to determine whether the same gun fired both bullets.
The next afternoon, CPD superintendent Eddie Johnson confirmed it: the shell casings were a match. At that day's press conference, they released a chilling surveillance photo of the suspect, clad head-to-toe in all black, just before he shot Doug Watts outside his home.
The following day, police released surveillance video of the killer, both on Sherwin Ave before killing Watts, and fleeing after the crime. Due to his odd gait in the video, the killer has received the (in my opinion very unfortunate) nickname "The Duckwalk Killer." No video or photographic evidence was found from the Moscowitz murder.
In the aftermath of Moscowitz's murder, Rogers Park was on high alert. Police swarmed the neighborhood in what was described as a 'saturation' tactic, trying to catch the killer before he struck again. It apparently led nowhere.
Since then, the case has evidently gone cold. Although the murder raised the largest reward in Chicago history ($150,000), by February it was reported that detectives had exhausted all leads, including a suspect who turned out to have an alibi. The loved ones of Douglass Watts and Eliyahu Moscowitz are waiting for justice.
Points for discussion
There has been speculation that the murders were hate crimes: Watts was a gay man, and Moscowitz an Orthodox Jew. But Rogers Park is quite diverse — it's not implausible that if you picked two people at random, you'd get a gay man and an Orthodox Jew.
There was also speculation that the killings are related to the death of an unidentified woman by a shot to the head about 4 miles to the south, although this has been claimed to be a suicide.
As is not uncommon in cases like this, some people have speculated that the murders were "gang initiations." I'm not sure how real that is as a phenomenon.
The killer is dressed head to toe in all black on a temperate day — in the 60s F. This suggests he was intending to commit a crime. But was it a planned murder, or was it a botched robbery after all?