Teen charged with murder accused of looking for random person to shoot
A 17-year-old boy was accused Friday of driving around looking for a random person to shoot when he allegedly participated in the killing of an 18-year-old man last year on the South Side.
Cinque Dunn, 17, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the shooting of Willie Washington on Aug. 12 while he was standing at a bus stop at 79th Street and Phillips Avenue, Cook County prosecutors said in court Friday.
Judge Charles Beach ordered Dunn’s bail set at $500,000 during the hearing.
A witness to the shooting detailed his involvement in the murder to police on Jan. 15 and told detectives that Dunn and another person were the shooters, prosecutors said.
The witness said he was driving Dunn and an uncharged co-offender on the night of the shooting when he heard them say they were going to do a “slide,” which prosecutors said he understood meant “to just shoot anyone they saw.”
When the group saw Washington walking toward the bus shelter, the uncharged co-offender told the driver to turn the car around and circle the block, prosecutors said.
Dunn, armed with a handgun, got out of the backseat and fired seven to eight shots directly at Washington then ran back to the car, prosecutors said. As Dunn was returning to the car, the uncharged co-offender got out of the car and approached Washington, who had fallen to the ground, and shot him in the head several more times, prosecutors said.
Responding officers found Washington facedown in a pool of blood, and he was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center soon after.
Prosecutors said the investigation currently suggests that Washington was targeted at random in the killing.
A second witness who saw the shooting was unable to identify Dunn and the other shooter but provided other information that corroborates the driver’s story, prosecutors said.
An arrest warrant had been filed for the second shooter, but he had not been taken into custody as of Friday, according to prosecutors.
Dunn is currently awaiting sentencing on a 2019 finding of delinquency for unlawful use of a weapon in juvenile court and is on probation for a 2017 charge of unlawful use of a weapon, prosecutors said.
An assistant public defender for Dunn said he was living with his mother and is a junior in high school.
Dunn’s next hearing was set for Feb. 5.