A 71-year-old man was shot 22 times in broad daylight in a Chinatown attack, prosecutors said in court, with a judge calling it an "execution" as he denied bail for the man charged with the crime.
Alphonso Joyner, 23, appeared in court for a bond hearing Thursday and was ordered held without bail as prosecutors detailed the frightening scene that unfolded Tuesday afternoon. Joyner's public defender denied the allegations, saying his client was innocent.
Joyner was charged Wednesday with murder, aggravated use of a deadly weapon and possession of a revoked FOID card in the shooting death of Woom Sing Tse.
According to authorities, Tse, who lived in Chinatown, was walking in the 200 block of West 23rd Street when an individual pulled up in a vehicle. Sitting in the driver’s seat, the assailant fired a volley of gunshots toward Tse, but initially missed him.
As the 71-year-old attempted to flee the scene, the gunman fired again, striking the victim. He then got out of the vehicle, stood over Tse, and fired again before walking back to his vehicle and fleeing the scene.
Police say that they were given a description of the vehicle, along with its license plate, within minutes of the shooting. Officers then spotted the car in traffic on the Kennedy Expressway, and were able to pull the vehicle over and place the suspect into custody without incident.
Prosecutors said multiple videos capture the shooting and the "ghost gun" used to commit the murder was found in the seat next to Joyner during his arrest.
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Police also allege that Joyner had gunshot residue on his person at the time of his arrest.
Still, the motive behind the shooting remains unclear.
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"I cannot say why this happened… sometimes people just do evil people things," Assistant State's Attorney James Murphy said.
Authorities have thanked the Chinatown community for coming together to help quickly capture a suspect, saying extensive surveillance footage and other evidence was uncovered thanks to the efforts of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and other organizations.
“Chinatown is a very close-knit community,” Grace Chan McKibben, executive director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, said. “The Chinatown Chamber of Commerce has maintained a number of security cameras in the area, and we work closely with Chicago police, so whenever something like this happens, it’s devastating, but we’re grateful that it was solved quickly.”
Don Jerome, commander of the Chicago Police Department’s 9th District, said he immediately received a phone call after the attack, and surveillance footage was used to identify the suspect’s vehicle.
“For my phone to ring before I heard something on the radio, it shows the commitment the community has. It was really a team effort,” he said.
