A restaurant worker taking a cigarette break lost his life standing in front of his job on the South Side.
A gunman fired shots from a light-colored vehicle toward Alice's Bar-B-Que, at 65 E. 43rd St., in Bronzeville around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The shooter was targeting "a little gangbanger," the Chicago Tribune reported, citing sources, but three bullets struck Joshua Hudgins, 34, of the 4900 block of South Champlain Avenue. He was pronounced dead less than an hour later at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
"A lot of people will miss Josh behind the counter. Besides being a great person, he was a great cook," said Hudgins friend, Henry Ramsey. "He would take his shirt off if you needed it. He was a standup guy."
Hudgins was the single father of two children, an 8-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
"Everybody is in shock. Nobody expects it from him. He is a family man. He had devoted himself to his kids and working," said Gregory Johnson, the restaurant's owner."
Johnson described Hudgins as his "number one cook."
Police are reviewing surveillance video of the incident, but so far no one has been arrested.
