North Riverside police have charged 23-year-old Hussein Ali Matari, of Oak Lawn, with first-degree murder in the June 14 shooting death of 26-year-old David Garcia, of Downers Grove.
Matari is being held without bond at Cook County Jail awaiting a July 6 hearing at the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood.
In announcing Matari’s arrest and charges last week, however, police withheld other information about the circumstances of the shooting, including where it happened and how and where Matari was arrested.
But the prosecutor’s bond proffer lays out details of the incident, suggesting Garcia was shot inside Matari’s lime green BMW, which had sped away from a party in the 2500 block of Westover Avenue with Garcia inside.
Garcia’s body was discovered lying in the street near the intersection of 25th Street and Hainsworth Avenue shortly after 1 a.m. He had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at Loyola University Medical Center about a half hour later.
While police interviewed residents near where Garcia was found, investigators were concentrating their efforts about two blocks away in the 2500 block of Westover Avenue, where there were blood stains in the alley just north of 26th Street as well as on the sidewalk and roadway south of the alley.
According to the Cook County prosecutor at Matari’s bond hearing, events began unfolding on the evening of June 13 when Matari allegedly picked up an unidentified woman from a party at the house in the 2500 block of Westover Avenue.
Matari reportedly was driving a BMW and after picking up the woman from the party first stopped at a nearby gas station to use the bathroom. Before going in Matari reportedly handed the woman a black handgun with an extended magazine.
The woman took a photo of the gun and then sent the photo to a group of people via SnapChat. The two drove up and down Lake Shore Drive for a time before the woman began receiving text messages and then a phone call to return to the party.
When they returned, Matari parked in front of an apartment building on Westover near the house where the party was taking place. Garcia and another person approached the BMW, and Matari reportedly asked them to get inside his vehicle. Garcia reportedly got into the vehicle.
As the woman who left the party with Matari began getting out of the front passenger door, the BMW reportedly accelerated quickly, causing the woman to fall out of the vehicle and onto the pavement face first. She reportedly lost two teeth and was bleeding from the mouth.
The other person who had walked over to Matari’s vehicle with Garcia attended to the injured woman while Matari sped away with Garcia.
A witness who lives near 26th Street and Hainsworth Avenue reportedly told police he was in the kitchen when he heard four to five muffled gunshots and looked out the window to see a green BMW double parked on the street near the alley. The vehicle then drove off.
A few minutes later, according to the prosecutor, a Lyft driver observed a man lying in the street at 25th Street and Hainsworth Avenue and called 911. Garcia had sustained four gunshot wounds and police recovered two shell casings at the intersection.
Police that morning went to Matari’s home in the 9100 block of Melvina Avenue in Oak Lawn, where they reported seeing Matari arrive in a Jeep Cherokee and go inside. Matari later exited the home and got back into the Jeep.
Officers followed the Jeep and a high-speed pursuit ensued. It ended at about 12:15 p.m. when the Jeep crashed into a home in the 6400 block of 85th Street in Burbank. Matari and two others reportedly fled from the vehicle, but Matari was apprehended in a nearby yard. Police reported recovering a handgun with an extended magazine behind the front passenger seat of the Jeep.
Investigators later located the green BMW in an apartment complex parking garage at 200 N. Dearborn in Chicago. Police reported recovering a fired bullet inside the BMW and security camera video reportedly showed Matari’s clothing had blood on it when he exited the vehicle to meet someone inside the garage.
