Approximately 59 shell casings were found scattered at the scene where a rapper was fatally shot as he was being released from Cook County Jail on electronic monitoring over the weekend, Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said Tuesday.
Brown shared new details about the case during a news conference he held the day after attending a White House meeting with President Joe Biden on crime.
Just before 9 p.m. on Saturday, officers responded to multiple ShotSpotter alerts and calls of a person shot down the street from the Cook County Jail, according to Brown.
Upon arrival, officers found 31-year-old Londre Sylvester, who is also known as a rapper in Chicago, "lying on the parkway unresponsive from having sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body," Brown said, adding, "Approximately 59 fired shell casings were scattered on the street near this scene."
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Sylvester was taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center where he was pronounced dead, according to police. Two women at the scene - one accompanying him and another not associated with Sylvester - were also wounded, one suffering a graze wound and the other shot in the knee. The women were listed in good condition, Brown said Tuesday.
Sylvester was killed as he was walking out of the jail after he was released from custody and placed on electronic monitoring as a condition of his bond, according to Brown.
"He was in custody on multiple charges, including armed habitual and felony aggravated assault with a vehicle against the arresting officers in that felony assault," Brown said, running through a timeline of Sylvester's movement in and out of jail over the last year.
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Sylvester was taken into custody in late June for a violation of electronic monitoring, Brown said, and the court set bond at $50,000 and electronic monitoring on July 1.
His bond was met and he was released on July 10 and was headed down the street to his vehicle when police said two cars drove up, gunmen exited the cars and fired dozens of shots at Sylvester before fleeing the scene.
Brown called the shooting a "targeted execution." No one is in custody in connection with the shooting as police continue to investigate.
Brown used the case as an example in his continued push against electronic monitoring enabling the release of those charged with any sort of violent crime.
"By the time Sylvester died from the hail of gunfire, he had a total of 22 arrests: seven felony, 12 misdemeanor and two convictions," Brown said. "If not for his lifestyle choices, Londre Sylvester's death most assuredly endangered everyone around him."
"The three words inked beneath the target tattoo on his throat, on Sylvester's throat, summed up his lifestyle: 'Kill to survive' was his tattoo," Brown added.
"It's a miracle that the two women, one accompanying Sylvester and the other just an innocent bystander and not associated with him at all; it's miraculous that they weren't shot and killed as well," he continued. "All these prior arrests, these serious felonies, these very violent crimes, didn't keep him in jail. And it created an unsafe environment for others, to put him on electronic monitoring."
