A man charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 71-year-old Woom Sing Tse in the city's Chinatown neighborhood is scheduled to appear in bond court Thursday.
Murder charges were approved Wednesday against 23-year-old Alphonso Joyner in the case, according to Chicago police. Joyner also faces charges of aggravated use of a deadly weapon and possession of a revoked FOID card, both of which are also felonies.
During a recent press conference, Chicago police provided harrowing new details in the case, and praised community members for quickly leaping to action in an effort to find Tse's alleged killer.
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.
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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.
Authorities allege that Joyner still had the weapon, which had an extended magazine, in his vehicle when he was arrested. Police also allege that Joyner had gunshot residue on his person at the time of his arrest.
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Extensive surveillance footage and other evidence was uncovered thanks to the efforts of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, and Chicago police thanked residents and business-owners for their cooperation in capturing the suspect.
“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, says that 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.
